


Home

by just_a_rosie



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/M, M/M, Multi, Occult, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, Rating May Change, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:24:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 24,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_a_rosie/pseuds/just_a_rosie
Summary: Getting a, fully paid off and fully furnished, house nearly right out of college? Great!That house being home to three demons and this "Circle" that will let others come and go as they please? Not great.What was your grandmother thinking leaving this place to you?(On Hiatus because I'm in a dark state of mind and want this story to remain on the lighter side despite the demons)





	1. Somethings before we get started...

Okay, so this idea has been kicking around in my head for a while now, and I've finally decided to start writing a story for it. I have quite a few plot points I want to hit as well as a few mini storylines, but this work is mostly just a world I've made more than a completed story in my head. It's fluid and has no real end goal at the moment, so I'm very opened to comments and suggestions to try to further the story and flesh out the universe.

I know this has a "Seven Deadly Sins" vibe to it, but I would like to point out that the only reason I know this is because I read a fanfiction based around it. I've never seen the anime/read the manga. Anything apart from the basic premise are original ideas inspired by the YouTubers the story is based around.

Now, some key things about the story...

While the tags may say the YouTubers as the characters and in the pairings, the YouTubers are not who this story is about, but rather their alter egos (well, my interpretation of their alter egos as they fit with this story). Meaning Mark is actually Darkiplier, Sean is Antisepticeye, and Nate is Natemare.

And while this is an "x reader", the reader is a pretty fleshed out character backstory wise. She has a family, who are a pretty significant part of the story, who are named and such. A personality as I don't want her to be a blank nothing character that the plot just happens to (like the early Disney princesses or Bella Swan). And other little facets to her. I'm keeping away from naming her though, as well as keeping her appearance up to you. So she is really more of an original character that you get to name and imagine looking how you want her to. I'd like her to be more of a reader, but a long fic like I plan on with in depth characterization, is just not really possible if I keep her blank enough to be anyone. I do use [Y/N] for her name when it is used, but other than that, I don't really use any other of those kinds of things if I can help it as I feel it takes you out of the story a bit.

On the name note, because I use [Y/N] for the reader's name, I will also be using [Y/N/N] (standing for "Your Nickname") for the purposes of this story. So, you'll need to come up with one. A, probably often used, nickname for the name you give the reader (whether it's your name or not). Like "Lucille" turning into "Lucy". If you have/use a name that doesn't have something like that (like Amy or Jane) get creative, because it's a part of the story that is pretty reoccurring.

The rating may change depending on if this gets smutty or not, I'm not sure yet, we'll see how it goes. Let me know if you feel like you want it or if I should leave those scenes up to the imagination.

I'm planning on updating the tags as I go. Other YouTubers are going to be making appearances (feel free to make suggestions). Other creatures. Other taggable things. I'll try to remember to add trigger warnings to notes, but please check the tags every update just in case I forget.

Seeing the tags, you'll see this is a poly fic. And it truly is, but relationships are complicated (especially where demons are involved) and probably won't be as cut and dry as you think/hope they'll be.

Also this is a second-person, limited POV, sorry if that bothers you or turns you off of it.

As for an updating schedule, I'm not sure yet. I'm hoping to update once a week at least. Probably on Friday. We'll see how it works out.

I think that's all for now, if anything else comes up I'll add it to the beginning of chapter notes. Really what I want out of this story is for it to be a more cooperative experience than most stories, I want it to be more "our story" than "my story" if that makes sense.


	2. A New Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some backstory and set dressing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just setting up some basic stuff, no real plot yet.

The drive up to the house was up a long winding road. It gave you time to think, to question your decisions. And, yeah, maybe you shouldn't have uprooted your whole life for some country house in the middle of nowhere, but it was too late to turn back now. You'd already quit your job, ended your lease, and accepted your inheritance. And your family already hated you. Fuck, did they hate you. You slammed the steering wheel with your palm. The tears of your ostracization had long since stopped falling, but your anger at the whole situation still simmered.

A couple months ago your grandmother on your mother's side passed away. She'd had heart problems for a long time, and had been in the hospital for about two weeks before passing away in her sleep. Apparently in that time in the hospital she had met with a lawyer and changed her will. The house was supposed to go into the dual possession of your aunt and mother, her two children. So it was a shock to everyone when the will was read and your grandmother had willed her home to you instead. But, of course, you knew why. Everyone knew why, they just didn't think she'd do something like this.

Your grandmother had been the black sheep of the family ever since she had retired, moved into the country home, and become obsessed with the occult. It came out of nowhere, this obsession, and your family blames the house. They think she went crazy living out in the middle of nowhere on her own. You didn't think so and you didn't mind her obsession. Not to say that you understood it or found any interest in it yourself, but you didn't see it as a problem. Sure, now your grandmother wore weird pendants and smelled of incense all the time, but she was still your grandmother. Still the same woman who wrote you a personalized card every birthday. Still the same woman who helped you make sugar cookies every Christmas. Still the same woman who was there for you every time your parents had a bad fight.

The point being that you were the only one not to treat your grandmother any differently once she started raving about the occult. And the whole experience really brought you two closer together. You swallowed down the sudden urge to cry. Apparently not all your tears had dried up yet.

So, your grandmother had left you this mansion hours away in the middle of nowhere. And, yeah, maybe a sensible person probably would have followed your uncle's advice to sell the place and spread the wealth evenly amongst the family "like Mable should have done". But, unlike the rest of your family, you knew how much your grandmother loved this house, knew she wouldn't want it going to some stranger. It had taken a while for you to come to a decision, as evident by it being two months since your grandmother's passing, but you had eventually decided that this was your best course of action. So, here you were, uprooting your whole life to live in a huge house by yourself, miles away from civilization. Yeah, your family is pretty sure some of your grandmother's "crazy" rubbed off on you. And now you're the black sheep of the family.

And so that's your story as of now as you pull up a long driveway that sits outside of a large, beautiful house/practically a mansion. Your large, beautiful house/practically a mansion. The place came fully furnished, so you only had a handful of boxes, all of which fit into one of those little U Haul trailers, currently attached to the back of your car. But you were much too tired from the drive up to start unpacking just yet. You checked your watch, a little after one o'clock. You had plenty of time to take a quick nap before unloading boxes and then bring the trailer to the site in the town about half an hour away from here. With your decision made, you made your way up the front steps to the door of the house.

To you, the house looked like a modern day castle. French Provincial is what it was according to the realtor that your uncle hired to get estimates on the house back when you weren't sure what you were going to do. The long driveway up to the house ended in a circle in front of the house, with a branching section that you knew led to a four car garage that's detached from the house. In the center of the little circle was an old, worn-looking well that should have looked out of place in front of a mansion, but just added to the castle vibe of the place. The roof was what gave off the castle vibe the most perhaps. It was tiled and a grayish lilac color. And while it was flat on top, it drew up into a spike above the windows that peeked out of it. And there was, of course, the spire off to one side of the house. Yeah, the spire was what really sold you on the whole castle thing.

The walls of the house were a purplish off-white color and looked to be made of some kind of smooth stone. Though that smoothness didn't stop the ivy from hooking onto it and crawling up the sides. It wasn't unruly, strangely enough considering it's been left alone for two months. In fact it was well controlled to climb up the walls and around windows instead of over them. The windows were nice, with white wooden frames and gray stone sills. And with so many of them, you'd think you'd get a peek inside the house, but it seems all the curtains were apparently drawn. The front doors were very similar to windows in that they were a white wood surrounded by the same gray stone as the window sills. There were a couple of extended half circle window slits up at the top of the doors, too high to properly look through. Not that you could see through them anyway as they were made of clouded glass.

You pulled out the key that you'd been given and inserted it into the keyhole just below the doorknob. It clicked open and you slowly opened the door. You don't know why you were expecting some sort of loud creaking sound, it's not like this place was old and decrepit. You were met with silence at the door opened, the unlocking click probably louder than the actual door swinging open. While the curtains had been closed, they obviously weren't blackout curtains as the entryway was light enough for you to see pretty well. The entryway was huge. It took a good ten steps of open floor to get from the front door to the steps up to the second floor, which had balcony style hallways leading out from the stairs at the back wall and across the adjacent walls, ending back at the front of the house. There were a couple doors on the back wall of the second floor, leading you to realize that that was an inner wall and not the back of the house. The adjacent walls each had a hallway in the center of them, parallel to the front of the house.

On the ground floor, there were hallways either side of the stairs, though since the stairs fanned out to become wider at the bottom than at the top, you'd have to circumnavigate the edge of the stairs to get to them. On the adjacent walls there were also hallways in the centers of the walls, mirroring the top floor. Really apart from the far wall's doors versus hallways on the top and bottom floors, respectively, the whole entry area was very symmetrical both vertically and horizontally.

The room was full of light colors. The staircase was made of a white marble, the banister a light, or perhaps medium, wood. The white marble floors, the cream colored walls, everything was just light and airy and inviting. Suddenly all your previous tiredness was gone and all you were filled with was the, admittedly childish, urge to explore your new home. You'd seen the floor plans, of course, but the floor plans hadn't told you much but the square footage of each room. You had wanted to go over it with the realtor, but she had apparently been too spooked by the place to want to talk about it. So, exploring it was.

You figured the most thought out and methodical way to go about this would be to make a loop of the ground floor and then head up to do the same with the top floor. So, of course, what you ended up doing was closing your eyes, spinning around a few times, and heading off in a random direction. That direction took you to the hallway on the left wall. You then opened the first door you came across which was to your right. Cleaning closet. How interesting. You quickly closed it and headed to the door next to it. Bathroom. Man, you were on fire. Though the bathroom was kind of interesting, at least. It was one of those where the sink and mirror were separate from the toilet. It was a pretty large room and even the room the toilet was in was spacious despite only containing the toilet, a cabinet, and some art. The room with the sink was also finely decorated with a long cabinet along one wall, containing the sink, and a mirror spanning the whole wall above the cabinet. A mirror that you saw yourself in. And, boy, did you look out of place in your ratty t-shirt and sweats. It had been a long drive and you'd wanted to be comfortable for it.

You quickly exited the bathroom and came face to face with the only other door in the hallway. You opened it and grinned. This room was probably your grandmother's pride and joy. This room, was a library. It was a circular room, which made sense since it was the bottom of the spire. The walls were lined with shelves which gave it more of a dodecahedron look then a circle. Or whatever shape has, one, two, three, four… eighteen sides, fucking hell. Well, nineteen really if you count the fireplace as a side and not just the bookcases. Twenty if you include the door as well, you thought as you closed said door. The rest of the room was pretty sparse. There were a few chairs and a couple loveseats placed, seemingly randomly throughout the room. Surely it would have made more sense to have gathered them around the fireplace, wouldn't it? Maybe with a nice rug to cover that weird… oh. Going over towards the fireplace to get a better look at 'that weird coloration in the wood' proved it not to be some odd coloring at all. No, it was a pentagram. A pentagram burned into the floor of the library. Well, you think it's a pentagram, but it's hard to tell. There are the obvious circle and star shape, right there, but the rest is full of other weird symbols, maybe writings of some sort? You aren't really well versed in demonology or whatever, but you don't think pentagrams are supposed to be filled in…

"Hello, [Y/N]."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


	3. A Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious man sets up a decision that will change your life forever.

You know that whole fight or flight reflex that people talk about? How, when faced with something that could be perceived as dangerous, your body will either fight against it, or run away from it. Some people have added a third option: freeze. Well, you'd like to add another option: fucking scream. See, it even starts with an "f".

"Eep!"

You turned and were faced with a man standing behind you, over by the door. You hadn't even heard him come in. You would have at least heard the door shut, wouldn't you?

He wasn't very tall, not to say he was short, but something about how he held himself made him very imposing. He had dark hair, brown but nearly black, that was the very definition of controlled chaos. It looked messy, but also somehow like every strand was exactly where it was supposed to be. He wore a dark grey suit that definitely was more suited to this house than your own outfit. He looked like he belonged.

"How did you get in here?" You asked. Belatedly, you realized that you most definitely did not lock the door after you entered the house. And really, the how was probably the least important question you could have asked.

The man's lips quirked up into an expression that had you feeling like he knew every word you had just thought. But just as quickly, it flicked back into the neutral mask it had been before.

"I… Who are you? How do you know my name?" You changed questions before he could answer your first one.

"I know a lot about you, [Y/N]. Mable spoke of you many times." His voice, you noticed now, was deep, even.

"You knew my grandmother?"

He nodded.

"Who are you?" You asked again, starting to step back, away from him.

"I wouldn't step on that, if I were you," he warned and you lurched forward as if he had screamed at you, when in actuality his voice hadn't rose at all from the volume it had been before. You turned to see what he had meant and, of course, it was the scorched wood you had just been puzzling over a moment before.

"Mable called it the Circle." You jumped and nearly screamed again when you looked to see the man standing about a foot behind and to the side of you. He was looking down at the floor as well. "It has another name amongst my kind, but you wouldn't be able to understand it, or even pronounce it. It loosely translates to 'Guiding Point', but Mable insisted on calling it The Circle."

"Your 'kind'?" You questioned, because for some reason that was the part of that explanation that stuck with you for whatever reason.

That same lip quirk like he knew precisely what you were thinking. It definitely wasn't a smile. It also wasn't quite a smirk.

"Your grandmother did speak to you about the occult before, yes?"

You've officially come to the conclusion that this guy is insane. Like, off-his-rocker nuts.

"I'm calling the police," you stated, scrambling through your pocket for your phone.

"I really suggest you don't do that."

"Stay back!" You yelled, stepping back onto the Circle, nothing happened shocker, as if he had reached for you. He hadn't.

Your hands fumbled for the keys on your phone. You had punched in 91, when suddenly you were on the floor. It was like there was a great pressure on your whole body, crushing it inwards. It wasn't like a physical object though, no it was like the very air somehow had enough substance to push in on your body. It was excruciating. But it was only for a second. The moment your body hit the ground, your cell phone scittering across the floor, it stopped. You gasped for air as if you hadn't breathed in a week.

"I do apologize, [Y/N], it was not my intention to do you any harm." You looked up at the man as he adjusted his tie. Maybe you had lost more oxygen than you had thought, because you were seeing double. Well, triple actually, but the other hims weren't really very substantial, just mere outlines on either side of his body. The weird part was that one side was blue while the other was red. You blinked a few times and the outlines were gone. "But we really cannot afford any interruptions, at the moment," he looked down at you and his whole eyes were black as ink. "Now can we?" He blinked and they were back to normal. Whites, pupils, brown irises. Human. Oh, but he was so far from it, wasn't he?

You swallowed, tried to put up a brave front. "What the fuck are you?" Your voice broke and quivered, showing how utterly terrified you truly were.

That same damn lip quirk, though now you were more inclined to call it a smirk. "You are so much like your grandmother." He pulled back and stepped out of your vision. You quickly sat up in order to keep him in your line of sight. Your head swam, but you still scuttled backwards until there were several feet between you and that stupid 'Circle'. The man walked over to the fireplace, not bothering to avoid stepping on the Circle like he had advised you to, and picked up an envelope that was resting on the mantel.

"Before I give this to you, I want to be clear where we stand," he said turning to face you. "You do not have to stay here, [Y/N]. I have the funds to buy this place off of you in full. All you'd have to do is sign the deed over to my name," you decided not to point out that he had yet to tell you his name, "and you could easily live out your years in a much more modest home than this." You briefly wondered just how much this place was worth. You never did get those estimates from the realtor. "Or, you could do what your grandmother did. You can stay here. But you really do need to understand what you would be getting yourself into." He looked down at you, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you willing to listen now?" You swallowed, his voice held a hint of danger to it. You did not want whatever just happened to happen again, that was for damn sure. You nodded. The man sighed.

"There is a rift here. A place where the veil between your world and others has thinned. It's an access point for beings from other worlds, like myself, to enter your world. Create a small tear and slip through before the veil repairs itself." You decided not to interrupt to point out how Doctor Who all that rift stuff sounds. Probably not worth it. "The Circle is where they come out. It was put in place centuries ago so that someone could be here to be certain that whomever comes through the rift can be trusted to keep themselves hidden in this world, or be sent right back to their own world." Again, you didn't interrupt, but there was no way this flooring, this house even, was centuries old, so how the hell could that Circle have been here for centuries? "And no, that person isn't you. You couldn't force another being to leave even if you tried. Honestly, there really is no reason for you to stay. But your grandmother did leave this place to you. I've no right to kick you out." His jaw clenched minutely at that. You probably wouldn't have noticed if not for the fact that his face has never shown any sign of emotion before. Not even that quirk/smirk thing held emotion, just a promise to ignore what you had just asked and continue on his own train of thought. Well he obviously doesn't want you here. And there is no way in hell that you're going to stay here with this psychotic… thing, so it seems he'll be getting what he wants.

He stepped across the Circle and this time you took option number three and froze. He simply stopped about a foot in front of you, though, and held the envelope out to you.

"It's your choice [Y/N]. Don't let anyone make it for you."

You understood what he meant when you saw the front of the envelope. It was addressed to you, your name written neatly on the front in your grandmother's writing. He didn't want whatever she wrote to persuade you to stay. Like she did.

Tentatively you took the envelope, looking down at your name on the front again. When you looked back up the man… being… was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


	4. Words from the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grandma Mable has some words of advice.

Dear [Y/N/N],

I hope this letter finds you well. Although, I am going to ask Dark to give it to you, so I can imagine you're a little freaked out right about now. Trust me, I can understand. He doesn't make the transition very easy, does he? But better him than Mare. Or, god forbid, Anti. You'll thank me for sending Dark your way first when you meet them. If you meet them, that is. You will, if you stay. But that's up to you. You have quite the choice to make, don't you?

Perhaps you hate me right now, for putting you in a position like this. I know I would, at first at least. Maybe I should have just sold Dark the place and left the money to the family, but I did at least want to give you the choice. I remember a conversation we had not too long ago. When you found out that awful Gary cheated on you (sorry to bring it up). We were talking about that old saying, 'ignorance is bliss', and you were saying how you didn't believe it, not one bit. That you were happy to know what he had done, because now you could finally stop blaming yourself for his breaking up with you.

Well, that was when I decided I wanted you to know. But I couldn't just tell you. I had already several times before, and not once had you believed me. So why would this time be any different? I played with the idea of inviting you over again. Surely now that you have graduated, you'd be allowed to come over. And then I could introduce you to the guys and they could prove to you that it was real. But, unfortunately, that was when my health started to decline and I ended up in this hospital where I am now, writing this letter. But I decided that you still needed to know, so I left the house to you. If I could handle meeting the guys on my own, then surely you could too. Strong, brave, and young as you are.

But I'm getting sidetracked. You have a choice. And I'm sure Dark painted the same picture for you as he did for me. One without you in it. But, really, I do believe that having a human at the Circle is helpful. You'd be the face of humanity for any newcomer, as I was. A friendly face to show them that we can be kind and accepting if given the chance. I think it helps, and I think deep down Dark agrees with me. He just doesn't want to. Or, at least, doesn't want to admit he does. But he is right that I don't need to be there. Not like he does anyway.

But that's just my two cents on the matter. Of course, there was no one around to tell me this when I started. No, I stayed out of sheer, dumb curiosity. I mean really, one minute the world makes sense, and the next everything I ever knew was a lie. Well, okay, not everything. But to know the things that go bump in the night are real, or at least one of them was. I had to know more. I had to know what was real and what wasn't. What I was lied to about. Is it a lie, if the person who is telling you these falsehoods truly believed them themselves?

Sidetracked, again, sorry. But you know how I am. But I did have a point to that. Do you really want to walk away now, not knowing everything that this place, these people, have to offer? I made Dark promise not to threaten you with the memory wipe like he did to me. Well, I say threaten, he says offer, and I guess the offer is still on the table. If you truly don't want to remember anything about the rift and the Circle, Dark has a witch friend who can wipe your memory. While I don't think you'll do that, I want you to know that it is an option.

I know it all seems scary now, [Y/N/N], but I really think that you can do this. More than that, I think if you can stick this out, you'll like doing this. Sure Dark can be a little rough around the edges, and Anti can be scary, and Mare a bit much at times. But I promise you, [Y/N/N], they're good people at heart, despite what they are. You'll like them, I know you will.

Please, just give this a chance. If for nothing else, than to satisfy the curiosity I know must be growing in you right about now. And don't pretend it isn't, I know you, remember? Because I know myself and you're a bit too much like me.

Love always,  
Grandma Mable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments always appreciated.


	5. Making a Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to make a choice (except not really cuz it's not that type of story)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late, oops.

"Well, fuck," you muttered, letting your head thump back against the chair you had scooted back to lean against. You hadn't felt like getting up off the floor yet.

You tried to blink away the tears, but that only succeeded in them leaving your eyes and trailing down your cheeks. That wasn't fair if your grandmother, that last bit. Nasty old woman using that against you. 'you're a bit too much like me.' It had been you and your grandmother's thing. Apparently, growing up, you had reminded your grandmother a lot of her younger self. She saw you acting like she had growing up. Most significantly, making the same mistakes she had or would have. She made the remark one day that it was unfortunate that you were a bit too much like her. The phrasing stuck.

But maybe this was one path of hers you wouldn't follow. One mistake of hers you wouldn't make. You snorted. Yeah right. You say that like you're not already halfway through making it. Hell, you thought you already had made her mistake. Living out in the middle of nowhere. Becoming the black sheep of the family. But those weren't the only facets of this mistake, were they? Obsessing over the occult. It had been the crux of the issue really, and yet you hadn't once thought about it as you followed in the rest of your grandmother's footsteps. It had always seemed so odd to you. If your grandmother was so much like you, then what was she doing obsessing over something so outlandish?

Well, now you understood it. And, of course, she was right, you were curious now. That man, Dark your grandmother had called him, he certainly wasn't human. And while it had very much terrified you at the time, now you found yourself more curious than anything else.

You knocked your head against the chair a few times, wishing it wasn't so soft. If it was harder, maybe it'd knock some sense into you. You weren't actually considering this, were you? You'd just gone through the most excruciatingly painful second of your life, and now you were considering living with the guy who caused it. And it's obvious this 'Dark' doesn't even want you there. What kind of a name is that, anyway? Dark. It's not even a name is what it is. It sounds like a three year old's name for the villain he made up to be his adversary while he goes through his superhero phase.

You rolled your eyes at yourself. Now you were just being childish. But really, the guy was a tool. He'd barely explained anything to you. He shoved the existence of the occult down your throat with his little display, but didn't explain shit about it. And he expects you to just leave after that? Fat fucking chance!

You started, startled by your own thoughts. That sounded a lot like you'd already decided to stay. Which you hadn't. Had you? Admittedly, a little thrill shot up your spine at the prospect of staying in this place. Because what would happen if you stayed? The answer is that you didn't know, and that excited that childish sense of adventure you had upon entering the house right back into you. But was that really worth living with some… whatever he is… who doesn't want you there? Living with a man who can drop you to the ground and make you feel like you'd rather be dead than be going through that torture was scary enough. And your grandmother had implied that this one was the most reasonable of the three? Not to mention any others who came through the circle.

Leaving. Leaving meant a large sum of money. Leaving meant reconciling with your family. Leaving meant living in civilization with civilized people, civilized humans. Leaving meant living the life you always expected, always thought you'd have with a leg up because of the funds your grandmother had provided you.

In the end, was it even a choice?

You thought not as you stood up and power walked out of the library. Through the hall. Across the entryway. Out the door.

And to the trailer behind your car. You wrenched it open and started pulling out boxes.

Because, goddamnit, you were going to satisfy your curiosity and learn everything from this house and the bastards, whatever they are, living in it. Because that's what your grandmother did. And you're a bit too much like her, aren't you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


	6. Meeting the Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So your new roommates are... interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, look who's back. Yeah, I've been hit by the majesty of inspiration. I have a couple more chapters of introduction then we start into mini storylines. Of which I have several, just with no idea what order they should go in.
> 
> TW: Creepy/Playboy!Mare. Seriously, dude starts as a total asshole, but I promise he has a reason for it and that his character will (eventually) improve.

Stupid rift. Stupid Circle. Stupid Dark. Stupid letter. Stupid curiosity. Stupid-

Your very important train of thought got cut off by the faint smell of smoke wafting into your nose. Which would have worried you very much, considering this was a wooded area, and you definitely would have looked into it if you weren't immediately distracted by something that could, potentially, be far more terrifying than a forest fire.

"Do you need help with that?"

You quickly sprang up, turning to see a man leaning against the side of your trailer. He was taller than Dark was, but not by much. He also looked to be part Asain much like Dark, though you doubted either of their ancestors hailed from Earth let alone Asia specifically. He had black hair that was quaffed up. He wore skinny jeans and a T-shirt of a band you think you might recognize. But the thing that stuck out most about him were the purple lines on his face, running down his cheeks from the edges of his eyes like tear tracks.

"I-I… you…" Why were words totally escaping you?

His eyes flicked up and down your body.

"How long have you been there?" You finally managed to get out.

"Long enough to appreciate. But not long enough to ogle." His eyes flicked down again, his head tilting so he could get another look at just what he'd been 'appreciating'. You cleared your throat and his eyes flicked back up to meet yours.

"So? Did you need help with that?" He jutted his chin out, indicating the boxes behind you still in the trailer.

"I-" you could barely get a word out before he was brushing past you into the trailer. He picked up one of the boxes you were pretty sure you were going to have to drag out, put it on top of another and picked up the two boxes like they weighed little more than a shoebox.

"Come on, let's get these up to your room," he said jutting his chin towards the house and obviously waiting for you to go first.

"Oh, no. I… I mean. You… you go first. You know the way." And you can't stare at my ass that way. Fucking pervert.

He shrugged and walked past you as you picked up a, much lighter, box.

"Oh, and [Y/N/N]?" He stopped, turning to you. "Feel free to ogle all you want," he said with a wink, before turning back and heading towards the house. Your eyes fell unwittingly to his butt before you quickly looked away, shaking your head. You think about changing your mind and leaving, but the guy is holding all of your books hostage. You sigh and begrudgingly follow Pervert McTearStains into the house.

"So I'm assuming you want Mable's old room. I mean, there's the guest room as well, but we figured you'd want the master suite. I mean the guest room doesn't have an en suite. Or even, like, a closet. Even I have a closet and I have to share a bathroom with Anti. This way," he rambled on as you went up the stairs then turned left. "I mean, the shape's a little weird, but it is the biggest room in the house. Well, bedroom anyways. Ah, here we are." He stopped at the door through the left hallway and to the left. He juggled his boxes so he was holding them with one arm - how? - and used his free hand to open the door. "Home sweet home."

You followed him inside and blinked at the room. It was oddly shaped, that was for sure. It must be the top part of the spire as it was circular. Well, it was mostly circular. You'd estimate about a third of the room cut off by an inner wall directly to your right with two doors on it. You also realised that these spire rooms really are dodecahedron-esque as the walls, which you could see in this room, were straight sections that angled off one another to form a circular shape. You also briefly wonder if he got confused because, apart from the basic furnishings, this room was pretty bare. The shelves against a couple of the walls opposite you were empty. The vanity just to your left was barren. And the nightstands on either side of the bed, opposite the inner wall, held nothing but lamps. There were no pictures. No personalisations. No mess. This seemed more like a guest room than your grandmother's old room.

"All your grandmother's stuff is in boxes up in the attic if you want to go through it. We just figured you'd want room for your stuff," the guy said as if he were reading your mind. He put the boxes he'd been carrying down by the shelves. "You can start unpacking if you want. I'll bring the other boxes up," he said, squeezing past you to get out the door.

"Wait."

He peeked back around the door frame, "Yes?"

"I, uh, I never… I mean, you know my name but I don't know yours," you pointed out.

His lips quirked into what was most definitely a smirk. "It's Mare," and with that he turned away and disappeared around the corner.

You set the box down and just looked around the room. The room really was quite spacious, but it didn't have much in it. Apart from the vanity, bed, side tables, and shelves, the only other thing of note was the rocking chair and lamp next to the shelves, presumably for reading books pulled from the shelves. But that didn't mean there was a lot of floor space. No, in fact a good portion of the room was taken up by the bed itself. The thing was huge. Like bigger than a king size bed. It was a four poster complete with curtains, lilac to match the bedding. Bedding that you'd probably have to use whether you liked it or not because where the hell were you going to get bedding for a bed so big? Whatever, the lilac was nice, a good contrast to the dark wood of the frame. The desk, shelves, and rocking chair were all that same dark wood. The floors were a slightly lighter wood partially covered by a pale pink, nearly white actually, rug in the middle of the room. It matched the wallpaper which was a floral design with flowers that same pink color. Floral wallpaper had never really been your thing, but there was something so simple about this design that it seemed much more subtle than floral walls usually seem.

"You alright?"

You jumped. Again. Seems to be a common reoccurrence in this place. Mare was leaning against the door, one eyebrow arched. On the floor around him were most if not all of your boxes. Had you really been spacing out long enough for him to bring them all up and you not notice? It wasn't an impossibility, though you wouldn't put it past this guy to have some sort of magical box teleporting powers.

"You've been spacing for a while now," he said pushing off the wall and walking closer to you. "What's up?"

"Nothing, just taking it all in I guess," you shrugged. "I mean, before this I lived in a tiny city apartment. I'm pretty sure my whole bedroom was the size of just that bed alone."

Mare chuckled, "Yeah, it's a little excessive, isn't it? Probably feels lonely, alone in a bed that big. I could keep you company if you like." Mare winked at you with that playful little smirk still etched on his face.

You rolled your eyes. This was getting ridiculous. "Are you always like this?"

"What? Dashingly handsome and incredibly witty?" You raised your eyebrows and Mare chuckled, shrugged and said, "Yeah, pretty much always." He then stuck just the tiniest bit of his tongue out between his teeth, teasingly. Hell would freeze over before you admitted that you found that quite cute actually. You don't want to think about just how much more that sentiment means now that you realize hell could be an actual place.

You quickly kneeled down to start unpacking to avoid thinking on that much longer. And then just sort of kneeled there by the box when you realized that you had no way of opening the box.

"Uh, you wouldn't have a knife by chance, would you?" You looked back towards Mare who shook his head.

"Nah, but just a sec," he leaned out the door. "Hey, yo, Anti! We need a knife!" He yelled.

Before you could even react, a sudden flash of light burst into your vision from beneath the vanity. Out of the outlet there, a ball of what looked to be electricity, defying every natural law of electricity, shot into the center of the room. The ball then seemed to explode in another flash of light that had you closing your eyes it was so bright. When you opened your eyes again, there was a man standing in the middle of the room where the electricity had just been.

"Seriously, Anti? What was it Dark said about not scaring the poor girl?" Mare asked him.

"Please, I'm sure you've done more to scare her off than I have," the man, Anti apparently, told Mare. He had an accent that sounds Irish, but not heavy Irish.

Anti had bright, dare you say electric, green hair that stuck up wildly in all directions. He was shorter than Mare, probably about the same height as Dark if not a bit shorter. He wore black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt. And when he turned towards you, you were faced with a terrifying sight. All across the front of his neck was a scar that looked like someone had slit his throat years ago and he had somehow survived.

"So this is her, huh?"

"Be nice," Mare told Anti like you would a naughty child or dog who constantly misbehaves.

"Make me," Anti stuck his tongue out at Mare who rolled his eyes. Then Anti reached into his back pocket and produced a knife that was definitely overdoing it. It was probably about ten inches, handle included, and was absolutely pristine when he unsheathed it. He tossed it in the air, caught the blade end, and held it out to Mare, offering him the handle. Mare took the knife, none too delicately and you're quite surprised he didn't slice Anti open in the process, and proceeded to start opening boxes.

"Uh, thanks," you said, not completely sure who to direct the thank you towards. Honestly, you're just happy you managed to say words after what you just saw. You kept looking between Anti, who was staring back at you unblinkingly, and the outlet, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Anti can travel through power lines," Mare told you, as though that answered everything.

"Right, because that's totally normal," you said, your voice going up several octaves.

"You're going to have to get used to a new normal, darlin'," Anti practically giggled. And damn, when did giggling become so creepy? It's like children in horror movies, they aren't normally creepy, but put them in the right circumstances and they're fucking terrifying.

You looked down at the box in front of you that Mare had just opened and found it to be bathroom stuff. Thank fuck. You quickly scooped up the box, took a random guess, and opened the door furthest from the door to the hallway. Bingo, bathroom. You shut the door and took a few deep breaths to calm your racing heart. You heard muffled voices from behind the door, but you really didn't care at the moment.

It had been one thing when you were just assuming these guys were not human. It was another to see proof that they weren't. Because, admittedly, apart from carrying incredibly heavy boxes and appearing out of nowhere, Mare had acted pretty human and you could almost pretend he was. But Anti threw all that out the window just by showing up. Fuck, was everything you've ever known a lie?

You shook yourself out of it and quickly began pulling things from the box and placing them where they needed to go. Across from the door was the sink. It wasn't too grand, just a wooden cabinet and drawer with a pink marble countertop and sink. The top drawer was fake, but the cabinet part was real and already had extra toilet paper and soap. There was a mirror on the wall behind the sink as well as one on the wall adjacent to it that doubled as a medicine cabinet. Next to the sink was the toilet, and apart from that the rest of the bathroom was taken up by the tub. It must be custom built because it molded perfectly to the wall. Calling it a tub really didn't do it justice. More like, shallow jacuzzi. The thing had jets. Jets! It had a shower head as well and a curtain for showering. The bathroom continued the pink floral theme from the main room, though a bit less subtly as the curtain was a bit gaudy with it's pink roses blooming in every bit of space. Your grandmother seemed to spare no expense when it came to personal comforts.

You slowly sorted out all your personal/hygienic care items and put them where they best fit. You finished by putting your shower stuff in the rack hanging from the showerhead and took a few more deep breaths to prepare yourself. Then you opened the door and walked through it.

Anti was sitting on the bed, twirling the knife around on his fingers and miraculously not cutting himself, and looking extremely bored. And then there was Mare.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Mare quickly dropped the pair of panties he had been holding up and looked up at you with the most innocent smile.

"Helping you unpack, of course," he reached into the box and pulled out a teddy. "Now where should this go?"

You snatched your lingerie out of his hand. "Out! Now, both of you, out!"

"Aw, what the hell did I do?" Anti asked, actually looking upset that he was being kicked out despite looking bored two seconds ago.

"Out!" You yelled.

Anti disappeared in a bolt of electricity back through the outlet. At the same time Mare turned into smoke, fucking turned into smoke, that flew out under the crack beneath your bedroom door.

"Fucking-" your hands dove into your hair and you clutched at your roots about ready to pull your hair out. "Gahhh!"

This place, these people, they were going to be the death of you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


	7. Second Guessing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You do some thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're going to get back on the old schedule, will be posting a new chapter every Friday.

You laid on your new bed, staring up at the ceiling. Despite everything that had just happened no less than two hours ago, you were stuck on one thought in particular. Why wasn't this bed a canopy bed? Like, it was a four poster with curtains. Why stop there? Might as well add the canopy. There was plenty of room between the top of the posters and the high, vaulted ceiling. At this point you're pretty sure you've gone delusional.

This had become a habit for you the last couple months when you had to seriously think on something. You'd do housework, or unpacking in this case, to distract yourself from it as long as possible. And then, when you couldn't put it off anymore, you'd lay in bed and just think. Your old bed though, was much smaller and not nearly as comfortable. And your old ceiling was a much different sight than this one. Your old ceiling would have you counting cracks and finding images in water damage. This ceiling was pristine and tilted up on all sides to meet at a point in the center. From there hung a small light fixture that seemed too simple to call a chandelier. It was hard to describe and you had given up trying to at this point. It lit the room and that was what was important.

What the hell had you gotten yourself into? One of your roommates seemed to have no idea what a personal boundary was. Another didn't seem to care one way or the other that you were here. And the other made it pretty clear he doesn't want you around. You had unpacked your stuff just for something to do, but should you really stay here? Was quelling your curiosity really worth it? You didn't know. You really didn't know.

Sighing, you sat back up and looked around the room. Your room, maybe. You weren't sure anymore. Your clothes were all in the walk-in closet that was the other door in the room, either hung up or in the chest of drawers that was in there. The vanity had your makeup, something that was previously in the bathroom, but you realized a vanity was a more suitable place for it, and your jewelry in the old jewelry box from the grandmother on your other side. The reddish wood didn't match the dark wood of the bedroom at all, but you really could care less.

Your grandmother was right about you being glad she sent Dark to you first. He was probably your favorite so far, despite the whole not actually wanting you around thing. He wasn't quite polite, but he was respectful, at least when it came to your grandmother's wishes. And while he was definitely scary, it is obvious he has no intention to hurt you. You know, aside from that whole 'worst pain you'd ever felt in your life' thing.

The shelves were now full of all of your books. You didn't have nearly enough to fill the shelves completely, as the bookshelf in your old apartment had been much smaller than these. So the shelves at about eye level were filled with old knick knacks from traveling or things friends got you, and photos. Mostly of you and your friends from college. The majority of them were your old roommates, Amy and Kathryn. They had been lifelines through the last few months and you missed them terribly. They were trying to get time off and coordinate their schedules to come out and visit you at the new place. Suddenly you aren't so sure that's a good idea anymore.

Mare was interesting to say the least. First impressions are never really that great, but this asshole hadn't even tried. The first thing he did was stare at your ass. The last thing he did was go through your underwear. Like, seriously, what was with this guy? Though, he had helped you with carrying boxes, and had even acted pretty normal until you yelled at him and he turned into smoke. Turned. Into. Smoke. What were these guys?

You still had a couple boxes lying at the foot of the bed. One was labelled 'desk stuff'. And by desk stuff it really meant PC stuff. Your carefully packaged monitor and PC tower were laying in a box waiting to be put on a desk you don't currently have. You'd need to get one.

You didn't really get much from your first impression of Anti. He carried around a knife and was able to expertly twirl it around his fingers. You aren't sure if you should be impressed or scared by that fact. Probably scared. He doesn't seem to care about hiding who, what, he is from you. He doesn't seem to care much about you in general. Overall, he's kind of the wildcard in this whole thing.

The other box has the mugs in it that you could not part with despite knowing that the kitchen cabinets were fully stocked with dishes. That's to say that it had, in fact, all of your mugs in it because you hadn't been able to part with any of them. It had been a problem back in college, yours and your roommates' mug obsession, one that continued into your tiny cabinetted apartment. For some reason you don't foresee it being a problem here.

But did you want to go down and find the kitchen? Well, yes, admittedly you still wanted to explore every nook and cranny this house had to offer. But did you want to run the risk of running into anyone so soon?

Probably better to do something else. Like lay in bed hiding in this room for another, oh, few days maybe? You sighed again. No, you'd go stir crazy if you had to be in here for another few hours even. You glanced out the window. Oh yeah, the trailer. You should probably bring that to the drop off in town. If you were staying, that is. Though, even if you aren't staying, those things charge by the day and if you know anything about your decision making, it's that it takes a while. Better to just take it back for now and get it later if you need it.

With all this in mind you grabbed your keys from where you threw them on the vanity and hurried out of the room, hoping not to run into anyone on your way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated.


	8. An Encounter of the Vampire Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You just can't seem to catch a break, can you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that is a Random Encounters Resident Enis reference. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to go look that up right now (and FNAF The Musical while you're at it). The tags didn't want to work with me so Enis is as close as I could get to AJ.
> 
> TW: Attempted noncon/dubcon of the blood-drinking variety. And Anti finally being his scary ass self.

Getting out of the house was surprisingly easy. No one was in the hallway to your room or to be seen in the entryway. Aside from the muffled punk rock music blasting in some room on the other side of the house, you could almost trick yourself into thinking that you were alone. You made your way down the stairs, out the door and into your car. As you buckled in and checked your mirrors, you half expected to see a tear stained face in your rear view mirror, grinning at you from the back seat. It's sad that your life is so crazy that now you're expecting the horror movie tropes. Luckily your car was empty and you quickly drove around the circle and followed the rest of the driveway away from the house. It was much too quiet, so you switched on the audio in your car. 'Thanks for the Memories' by Fall Out Boy began playing from the CD in the player. Amy had curated a disc of a bunch of songs you really like for your birthday a couple of years back. It'd figure you'd have the same music taste as one of the guys in the house.

The drive was pretty uneventful. Most of the drive was forest roads and then highway until you got to the town. It was one of those small towns that was part of the same county as a big city, but a good hour away from said city. It was nice and the drive wasn't bad. It was something you'd have to get used to if you stayed. While the house was paid off you'd still have to pay bills. Appliances, electricity, car, all that fun stuff. Or pitch in? Do these… whatever they are's… pay bills? Either way, you only had so much savings, so you'd have to get a job at some point. Would waitressing pay off electricity and appliance bills for a mansion? How much did it take to keep a house like that running anyways?

It was halfway through 'This is Gospel' by Panic! At The Disco that your audio started acting up. It was just skippy at first. Was the disc scratched? It's been in there for weeks and you haven't noticed it skip before. Then the thing just keeps repeating the line 'the fear of falling apart' and eventually just 'the fear, the fear'. You smack the console a few times. It works on jukeboxes, right? But that just causes static. Which probably doesn't make much sense. Eventually it just gets to a high pitch sound and you turn off the music, sighing in relief at the silence. Then the damn thing turns back on. 'IF YOU LOVE ME LET ME-' it screeches at full blast and you nearly swerve the car as you press the button to eject the disc. Silence.

You jump as your GPS tells you 'your destination is on the right' and you quickly pull into the Uhaul place. You were directed by a guy in a t-shirt and jeans, his only identifier as an employee being his nametag, on where to park your car. You take a few deep calming breaths, putting the incident in a box in your mind with a 'to be looked at later' sticker on it. Compartmentalizing had always been one of your strong suits. You got out with the paperwork and the guy led you to a computer that wasn't far away from where you parked and, strangely, outside.

"Dropping off then?" He clarified as you handed him the papers.

"Yup," you confirmed as you dug in your purse to find your wallet.

"So did you just move into town then?"

"Sort of," you told him. You said a little "aha!" as you finally found and pulled out your wallet.

He rang you up after checking the numbers with you and getting your signature.

"So, you need anyone to show you around?" He asked you. Was he flirting or just being friendly? He was about your age. Pale with light brown hair. Admittedly pretty cute. His nametag said 'AJ'. But dating was not exactly what you needed at the moment.

"I think I'll be fine. Thanks though."

"Are you sure?" His eyes caught yours. His green eyes. His beautiful green eyes.

What was he asking again?

"I know of a few good hole in the wall places we could go that you probably won't find on your map. It'd be fun, we could get," his mesmerizing eyes flicked down to your neck for a moment before flicking back up, "dinner."

"Yeah… that sounds…" you leaned towards him and those incredible eyes and unusually pointy canine teeth. "That sounds fu-" you were cut off by a loud crackle and flash of light behind you, but you didn't bother turning around. You kept leaning, barring your neck, but the object of your attention has his own attention behind you.

Suddenly a hand grabbed the collar of your shirt and yanked. You fell back into a solid chest as a man yelled next to your ear.

"Back the fuck off, bloodsucker!" His voice was accented and familiar, but it wasn't AJ's voice and therefore really didn't matter.

"What the hell, black eyes? I'm not breaking the deal with you and your 'boss'." That was AJ. You briefly wondered why he sounded so amused by the word boss. Like boss wasn't the word he really wanted to use. But what he was saying wasn't important, just hearing his voice reminded you that you needed to get to him. You fought against the arm around your waist holding you in place. That was wrong. Only AJ should be touching you.

"Yeah, well new human on the deal. This one is ours," the man who held you said, squeezing you a bit as he said "this one". No, you weren't this man's and whoever else he was talking about. You were AJ's. You fought harder against his hold. "Would you quit the vampire mojo already?" The guy demanded more than asked.

AJ sighed and you blinked as suddenly that sound wasn't the most important thing in the world, as suddenly this 'AJ', this guy you had just met five minutes ago, wasn't the most important thing in the world despite that being a complete fact to you a second ago. The fuck?

"[Y/N/N]?" That same familiar voice questioned, but this time you could place it.

"Anti?" You jerked out of his grip and he let you go, but held his arm out as if to grab you back if you went too far. "What are you doing here?" You looked between the two of them. "The fuck is going on?"

"[Y/N/N], get in the car," Anti commanded, his eyes not leaving AJ. His completely back eyes. You gasped, a set of similar black eyes flashing in your memory. A memory associated with a horrible pain. You hugged your arms to yourself as a shiver of fear crawled up your spine.

"I dropped the entrancement, what more do you want from me? An apology? I'm sorry for hunting a pretty girl that you guys in no way warned us against," he apologized sarcastically.

"Yeah, well you can spread it around then," Anti told him. "Get in the car, [Y/N/N], before I throw you in there myself." You thought it best to comply, not wanting to know if he had any mind melting tricks up his sleeve like Dark. You hurried towards the driver's seat, but Anti caught your arm and turned you towards the other side of the car. You got in the passenger seat, buckling up only due to muscle memory.

Anti got up in AJ's face, tugging him by the shirt collar and seeming to speak to him, though you couldn't hear from here. You're pretty sure it's threats though, judging by the look on AJ's face. Not a minute later he was shoving AJ away, who stumbled back but didn't fall, and getting into the driver's seat. He didn't bother with his seatbelt as he threw the car into drive and pulled screeching out of the Uhaul park. Glancing in the mirror showed that someone else had detached the trailer while you were with AJ. The vampire. Fuck.

"What the crap was that?" You asked, your voice several octaves too high and cracking. You grabbed the handle above the door for dear life as Anti weaved through traffic at ridiculous speeds. You were on the highway in record time.

"That was a vampire stepping over bounds and me putting him in his place," Anti all but snarled. You wondered if Anti normally drove like this or if it was because he seemed pissed. Anti white knuckled the wheel as he lane hopped like you've never seen lane hopping before.

"Right. Vampire. Because these things exist now." Your mind still didn't want to accept it.

Anti snorted, "They've always existed. Well, I guess not always on Earth, but in their plane of existence-" he cut himself off. "The point being they've existed for a long time, this is just the first time you're believing in them."

"I know that, I just-" you groaned and ran your hand, the one not currently gripping the handle, over your face, frustrated. "It's a lot to process okay? What did he even - I mean everything's just kind of a blur - what did he do?"

Anti rolled his eyes and you resisted the urge to tell him to keep his eyes on the road. Probably wouldn't end well for you. "Vampire magic," he said simply. Like it was obvious.

"Which is what exac-" he hit a bump in the road and you squeaked as, with how fast the car was going, the side of the car you were on jumped about half a foot in the air. Anti giggled before answering.

"Entrancement. He gets in your head. Makes you want to be close to him. Not afraid of him. Easier to feed that way."

You paled. Oh fuck. Feed. He was going to drink your blood. What was it about today that had you running into all these supernatural beings? So far you didn't like any of them.

"Oh," you said because you don't know what else to say. Anti snorted again.

"You sure you're up to this whole thing?"

You thought about it. Truly thought about it and answered, "I think so. I mean if I hadn't decided to stay, then I'd probably still be at the Uhaul place with a few holes in my neck. This is me assuming you wouldn't have come to my rescue had I not agreed to stay."

"You're assuming right. But you also would never have gone to the Uhaul place if you decided to leave," Anti pointed out.

"True. But it seems supernatural beings are already on Earth, and I'm assuming everywhere on Earth, so I could conceivably run into one anywhere," you reasoned.

"But you're more likely to here."

"I also have you here," you countered. Then that replayed in your head and you blushed down to your toes. "To save me! I-I meant to save me."

Anti chuckled, "You seem to be assuming a lot tonight. What's to say this isn't just a one time thing?"

"Because I'm apparently 'yours'," the air quotes were obvious in your voice. So was the sneer.

Anti didn't have the decency to, say, wince at your words or even your tone. No, the bastard just rolled his eyes muttering the word "humans" to himself in a very condescending manner. Which reminded you…

"What are you?"

You lurched forward as Anti slammed on the breaks, the car happily speeding behind just barely swerving around you, clipping your car and laying on the horn as it continued on its way. There were more honks as more cars swerved, but Anti didn't bother pulling off to the side of the road as he just stared at you, dumbfounded. With no power to do anything else, you switched on the hazard lights. Anti caught your wrist. When you looked up his arm at him, his eyes were black. Your whole body went rigid with fear.

"No one told you?" He questioned. You just managed to shake your head 'no'. He suddenly cackled and you shrank in on yourself. You wrenched your arm back towards you and were successful, however Anti's hold on your wrist remained as the man… being… himself followed your movement. In a flash he was on top of you. You felt the seat compress with his legs either side of your own, a weight settle on your thighs as he basically straddled your lap. But you were far more concerned with his face that was inches from your own.

"You-" he broke off into a few more guffaws of laughter, "You agreed to live in a house with three people when you don't even know what we are?" He shook his head in amused exasperation. "I'm not sure if that makes you more or less of an idiot."

You're body was quaking, little shockwaves running through it with each shallow breath you took.

"Terrified and you don't even know what I am yet." Anti cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "Or perhaps it's the not knowing that makes it more frightening." He smiled mock innocently down at you. "Are you afraid of me, [Y/N/N]?"

Your breaths were irregular now, and if you thought you were light headed before you were oh so very mistaken. Anti's smile stretched.

"[Y/N/N]?" Anti's voice was high pitched and sounded like it had been run through a voice modulator several times. His face did a weird glitching thing where there were several horizontal lines of grey that cut up his face into sections that seemed incongruent with one another.

"[Y/N/N]," he repeated, voice getting more jumbled, glitches getting worse. And suddenly the scar on his neck wasn't a scar anymore and blood gurgled from it as he spoke your name just once more.

"[Y/N/N]!"

Everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	9. Three Demons and a Human Live Together in a Mansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stop me if you've heard this one before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did a bad and ended up in another fanfiction hole and completely forgot I was still writing one myself, so sorry for the delay. Additionally, I lost my creative spark for this fic at the moment and don't know when I'll be getting it back. I'll continue to post every Friday the chapters I have written and hopefully I'll be back to writing by the time those are through. If not, expect a delay after chapter 13. I apologize for my forgetfullnes and finicky creative moods.

There was one time when you were pretty young, probably around six or seven, when you hit your head so hard you passed out. You were playing with a friend of yours at recess. You had made up a game of sorts where one of you threw a ball at a wall and the other would run and try to beat the ball to the wall. Neither of you ever did. But this one recess you were determined and you had just learned about this new kind of running that your cousin called 'Naruto running'. You didn't know the anime at the time, but she said it's how ninjas run so you figured it must be pretty fast. She explained it as running "bent over with your head down and your arms behind you". You took the head down too literally and didn't look where you were going. You remember running towards the wall, an explosion of pain, and then waking up in the nurse's office.

Waking up now felt very much like that time, except without the throb of pain in your head. But while there was no pain, there was the lethargy, the sense of displacement, and the memory of right before you blacked out. This memory, however, wasn't the blur of pavement under your Sketchers and pain. It was black eyes and terror.

You don't wake up fast and gasping. It's a slow thing as you first regain consciousness and then slowly start to register the world around you. The first thing you notice is that you are lying on an incredibly comfortable surface, leading you to the conclusion that you were moved from your seated position in an uncomfortable car seat. The second thing you notice is the voices. They're arguing loudly somewhere deeper in the house. If it weren't for them both being distinctly male, you could almost imagine being a teenager again with your parents arguing about whatever it was they argued about. It really is surprising that they didn't get a divorce until just five years ago.

You slowly open your eyes to the sight of what should be a canopy bed but isn't. You're in maybe-your-new-room, lying on the bed.

"Hey."

You jumped, quickly sitting up and scooting back away from the voice until your back hit an ungodly amount of pillows. Mare was at the foot of the bed, leaning on one of the bed posts. You couldn't help but stare at his eyes. They weren't black, well not in the way that you were dreading. Looking at his eyes now though, you realise just how dark his irises are. Not just a chocolate brown, but like a dark-chocolate-actually-almost-black brown. But he still had the whites of his eyes, so they don't look inhuman.

Mare seemed content to stare back, unbothered by your lack of response to his greeting. Eventually though, the silence must have gotten to him as he spoke again a moment later, this time clearly fishing for a response.

"How are you feeling?"

You shrugged, mostly because you don't feel as if you could form words at the moment. Your throat has that feeling you get in the mornings, the chalkiness from hours of disuse. Were you out for hours?

"How-" you have to clear your throat and try again. "How long was I out for?"

"About an hour. Assuming Anti drove you back here right after you fainted." A mischievous grin took over Mare's features, "I'm a little jealous, honestly. You swooning over Anti."

Black eyes suddenly swim through your mind. A garbled voice. A gurgling throat wound. You hug your knees to your chest and bury your face in them, not caring how childish you look right now.

You hear Mare sigh and then the bed dips to your left. You feel Mare situate himself, crawling over to the spot in front of you and settling there.

"What did you think you were getting yourself into when you agreed to this, [Y/N/N]?" You don't respond. Don't move. "Did you really think this was going to be like some crappy dimestore novel? Where you learn about the supernatural, fall in love with a vampire who's more human than he thinks, and live happily ever after." You wince at the word vampire, but Mare either doesn't notice or ignores it. "That's not how this works, [Y/N/N]. We're not human. We never were human. And we're never going to be human." Mare's practically spitting the words now, like they leave a foul taste in his mouth.

You hug yourself tighter, trying to make yourself as small as possible. You feel your breathing shallow again, that terror from before gripping your chest. In your mind you see a face inches in front of yours, black eyes mocking you. But they aren't Anti's. Purple tear stains leak out from the corners of the eyes. Mare's eyes. The man sitting in front of you. He's not human.

It's stupid, irrational, and downright idiotic, but you do it anyway. You spring sideways out of the bed, not even sparing a glance Mare's direction. He gives a yelp of surprise, surprise enough that you manage to make it halfway between the bed and the door before tendrils of smoke come sailing after you, surrounding you until suddenly they're a person and Mare is dragging you back to the bed, kicking and coughing from the smoke in your lungs. You're tossed on the bed like a ragdoll and you don't even try to get up again. That was a capital 'b' Bad idea. Your hip aches from landing on the bed, your throat and lungs ache from the smoke, and now you have a pissed off whatever-the-hell-he-is standing over you, glaring down at you.

"Stay," Mare says as he backwards walks towards the door, obviously not trusting you to stay. You stay. Mare opens the doors and yells into the house, "Are you assholes done yet?" His voice is loud and echoey, a lot like how you always pictured thaumaturgy sounding like.

A ball of energy bursts out of your outlet and you scream, screwing your eyes shut and curling into a ball. You don't open your eyes even as the light turns to normal behind your lids.

"Both of you, out," you hear a familiar deep voice command. You aren't about to question how he got to your room.

"But-" Mare begins to protest. You give off a fearful whimper at the sound of the voice that had just been spitting words at you a minute ago.

"You've both done enough damage for the day, thank you." Mare grumbles to himself and you smell smoke again. A few seconds later and light explodes behind your eyelids with an electric crackle. You still don't open your eyes.

You feel something settle on the bed in front of you, but it must not be Dark since it's still there even after you hear the door open and close. You slowly, warily, open your eyes, worried that it's a trick and he is still somehow in the room and sitting in front of you. He isn't. Instead there is a large book in front of you. It's bound in dark brown leather and has some sort of writing emblazoned on the cover, but it's a language you don't know. You're hesitant to open the thing, it could very well be a trick too, but you're natural curiosity wins out.

The pages of the book have the same color of a coffee stain, but it's all even like the whole paper was soaked in coffee and then dried. But they also feel thick and undamaged, so that couldn't possibly be the case. Just colored that way then. Made to look old. The title page was, thankfully, in English and read in your grandmother's handwriting 'The Circle Register'. You nearly snort. You're grandmother treated this place like a goddamn hotel because of course she did. You turn the next page and there is a table of contents. It has many names with a series of dots across the page going to the page number of where their information would be found.

'Darkiplier' is the first one. You hesitantly turn to the first numbered page to find what is essentially a wiki about the man.

Name: Darkiplier or "Dark" for short  
Species: Demon

And that's as far as you can get before your mind explodes.

Demon. The word stares back at you mockingly. Now, you're not exactly the most religious person, but even an atheist would agree that demon equals evil. Pure, absolute evil. How are you not dead already?

You flip back to the table of contents and find Anti, or 'Antisepticeye', a handful of names down the list from Dark's.

Name: Antisepticeye or "Anti" for short  
Species: Demon

It takes you a bit longer to find Mare's name, because unlike the first two his isn't the first part of what is actually his name. You find what you assume to be his not too far down from Anti's under the name 'Natemare'

Name: Natemare or "Mare" for short  
Species: Demon

You just stare at the open page in front of you, unseeing. You stare at it for a long time. Like so long that when you finally do look up, you realize the only reason you can see the damn thing at all is because the not-quite-a-chandelier is on. It's dark outside your window. When you get up to close the curtain, a habit from living in an apartment across from other apartments who could easily see you with the lights on at night, you notice your car isn't in the driveway. It must be in the garage. Well that would further complicate sneaking out of here. Then again, sneaking out was probably already impossible. God knew where the hell your keys were anyways.

You looked back at the bed, the book still open to Mare's page. With a sigh you pick it up and flip back to Dark's page. And then you start reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	10. Darkiplier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark's entry in the register.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as dates are starting to come up, I should mention this fic takes place actually around when it is being written (which for any of you future readers is in the year 2019). Also as a heads up, the next three chapters are going to be short because that's just the nature of them. I hope to make it up with fluff in chapter 13, providing my characters cooperate with me.

Name: Darkiplier or "Dark" for short  
Species: Demon  
Date arrived: June 28, 2013  
Date met: July 23, 2013

I met Darkiplier not long after moving into the new house. Imagine the shock I had when I was reading in the library and a man seemed to just appear out of nowhere! The man was frustrated with me. Yelling at me about how I was either oblivious or an idiot. He had been trying to scare me away for several weeks. Looking back I understand his frustrations. Little things had happened throughout the first weeks of my staying at the house. Things being in different places than where I had put them, hearing noises across the house when no one was there. The worst was finding the words 'GET OUT' written in blood across my bedroom ceiling. Of course, I called the police, but it was gone by the time they got here. They thought I was just some old lady going senile. I was actually relieved to meet Dark, because at some point even I started to believe I may have been going senile.

Eventually Dark calmed down and explained to me about the Circle. He told me about how it had been abandoned and how by the time he had arrived to take over its guardianship the humans had already gotten their hands on the house and sold it to me. He offered to buy the place from me. Despite only being here for a month, he had apparently been on Earth a long time and had the funds to show for it. But by that point I was already too curious to leave. He tried, he really tried to get me to leave. He even attempted to scare me again, threatened to kill me. But I stood my ground. To this day I still don't know why Dark didn't kill me that day.

It wasn't the easiest of starts for us. Dark was maddeningly hard to find during the early days. But there were times when he had to be around. Like when the first creature who came through the portal came. It was a monstrous thing, all boney with claws and teeth and so, so many eyes. The first thing it did was try to attack me. Dark fought it off and sent it back to where it came from, like I've seen him do many a time since. I was able to corner him, sort of. He helped bandage me up and I was able to ask him questions while he did so. We came to an agreement of sorts where he would answer one question a day if I would stop yelling for him all the time. And over time he'd start to yield to allow follow up questions. Then we might start having short conversations about things pertaining to my question. And slowly over time I was able to chip away at the wall he keeps his emotions behind. It will never go away completely, and sometimes he builds it back up, but he now seems to at the very least accept me as part of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	11. Antisepticeye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anti's entry in the register

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn you Anti and your actually not being as old as I think you are (you'll see why Anti messes up my whole thing in the next A/N)!
> 
> Also, sorry for the late update, had some medical issues go down. Anyways, enjoy.

Name: Antisepticeye or "Anti" for short  
Species: Demon  
Date arrived: October 10, 2016  
Date re-arrived: October 31, 2016

Anti arrived late at night while I was reading a book in the library. Considering Anti's entrance I didn't think he was going to be one to even make it in the Register. He appeared in a shower of sparks and, upon seeing me, approached me wielding a knife. Dark, as always, came to the rescue, but unlike most who fight back, Anti simply turned into electricity and disappeared into a nearby outlet. Dark disappeared after him, hurrying in that same direction and disappearing into the Upside Down.

Dark was gone for nearly two weeks with total radio silence. Dark had never disappeared following the odd runaway for more than a few hours. I was worried. It was early on Halloween morning that the two arrived back, both looking worse for wear, Dark holding Anti by his scruff. Anti pleaded with Dark to let him stay, but Dark sent Anti back to where he came from and that was that. Or so we thought. Until Anti came back a couple hours later, this time being much more behaved than last time. He pointed out that Dark had said if he hadn't attacked when he first arrived, then he would have gotten a chance, so he was doing a do-over. Dark was pissed, of course, and sent him away again after one hell of a fight. Anti came back once again a couple hours later. This happened a few more times until I convinced Dark to hear him out. That didn't go well since his only reason for being on Earth was because he was bored in Hell and thought he could "have some fun" up here. But he seemed to be able to keep coming back, so we were kind of stuck on what to do. Eventually it was agreed, begrudgingly on both fronts, that he could stay as long as he stayed in the house where Dark could keep an eye on him.

There was lots of trouble in the early days when Anti would sneak out, including an unfortunate incident with a hiker (see: Robin Torkar). When he was in the house he was a bit of a nuisance. Always messing with the lights and other electronics. Anti also really didn't care much for me either. He thought I, and all humans really, was beneath him. Weak. Worthless. It took me actually standing up to him, an act that was truly terrifying, for him to even give me a second glance.

Now though, Anti and I get along okay. I find that, when not directed at myself, his messing with electronics can be entertaining. And he's not bad for conversation either. Sure his topics of choice are a bit horrifying, but at least we can talk now. And Anti is mostly behaved. We can even let him out of the house and he doesn't (always) come back bloody. I don't think there will ever not be incidents when it comes to Anti, but he's better here, under supervision, than anywhere else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	12. Natemare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natemare's entry in the register.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you haven't noticed, the dates arrived have actually correlated to the dates that the egos first appeared in a video (or at least according to the wikis I found while searching for said dates). Unfortunately I had to change Mare's year because I wanted him to arrive after Anti. Fun fact that I didn't know: Mare predated Anti by nearly a full year.

Name: Natemare or "Mare" for short  
Species: Demon  
Date arrived: October 28, 2017

Mare arrived late afternoon one day in late October. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner when he just sort of walked in and helped himself to the wine I had out with nothing more than a "Sup". I, of course, screamed and Dark, who assumed him hostile, came and attacked. When Mare was pushed up against the wall he didn't fight back but instead made rather… inappropriate comments towards Dark. I quickly cleared up the misunderstanding and Mare was allowed to explain his intentions. He basically just came to live a rockstar life. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. While Dark didn't find that idea all that compelling, I found it rather charming. Or, more accurately, I guess I found Mare rather charming. It took some time, but I convinced Dark to let him stay.

Much to Dark's chagrin and my amusement, Mare took that very literally and stayed at the house. Sort of. In the early days he was out looking for and then with his band a lot. He always said he wasn't planning on sticking around long. But he always came back and the guest room he stayed in started to accumulate his stuff until it was safe to call his room. When he is around he is rather fun to talk to. Well he was after I made it very clear that I did not want to sleep with him. Really that boy is insatiable. I'm an old lady for crying out loud! He, of course, pointed out that he is most definitely far older than I, but it was beside the point. Even if I did think of "getting out there again" he looks far too young for my tastes. The boy could date my granddaughter and no one would look at the couple twice. Still, it's fun trading stories about my old exploits with his more recent ones. Makes me feel young again.

He still says he's just freeloading and isn't a part of "this whole demon adoption thing you have going on, Mable", but now everytime he leaves he says "see you later" instead of "bye" like he used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	13. Reflection in a Tea Cup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like, seriously, why wasn't this a canopy bed? Also tea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays! I'm back-ish. In that I haven't really written much more, but I have one chapter and half of the next, so I might as well start posting again. We'll see where it goes. Hopefully another chapter will be out on Friday. If not, then think of this chapter as a holiday gift and I'll get back to the story when I can.

You lay staring up at the ceiling once again. The Register lay open on your lap as you hadn't bothered to do any more than drop to your back after you finished Mare's entry.

There were several things that stuck out to you about what was written. At the forefront, because it was the last thing you read, was that Mare had wanted to have sex with your grandmother. You're nose wrinkled and your throat burned with bile. Yuck. You could have gone your whole life without that picture in your head, thank you very much. Well at least you know that that's just how Mare is and his attraction to you is something to be expected. Makes it a lot easier to turn him down that way. Apparently he gets more palatable after being turned down. Though you'd really rather not hear about his "exploits" if you can help it.

Then there was Anti. You didn't turn to this 'Robin' person's page, not quite sure if you want to know what happened. The fact that he could come home 'covered in blood' and it would be an unusual but not unheard of event is terrifying. Anti is pretty terrifying in general. Though she was right, at the house anyways, Anti is 'mostly behaved'. The minute you were alone with him, however, all hell broke loose.

Oh, God, Hell. Anti had come from Hell. Like actual Hell. Real place Hell. Real place you could end up Hell. And, now that you think about it, if you stick around you'll probably be more likely to end up there right? Housing with and not smiting demons isn't listed as a sin, you don't think anyways, but it's probably implied. Had your grandma gone to Hell? As eccentric as she was, she was the most kind and caring woman you knew. You seriously doubted any God would send her there in good conscience. But she housed demons, so…? Maybe you should ask said demons. Would they even know?

Then there was Dark. It was hard to imagine the same guy you met losing his temper over something as trivial as your grandmother being oblivious. It was also hard to picture Mr. Worst-pain-in-your-life being so protective over someone. And it wasn't just Dark's entry that told you that. He took on Anti to protect her and came running at her scream like a guard dog when Mare scared her. Yet he made your brain melt when you had just tried to call the police. Suddenly Dark wasn't your favorite anymore. Really none of them were. And yet…

And yet.

Despite what Mare said, they sounded like they had very human qualities to them. Playboys were a thing, even if Mare took it to a whole other level. Psychotic people were a thing, though there were probably undiagnosable issues with Anti's brain. And emotionally stunted people were a thing, though you're sure Dark's issues have nothing to do with his parents not being there for him. They all have human qualities to them, they just seem to take it up a notch. Or twelve.

You lay there a long time, rethinking the same thoughts over and over, trying to see things from other angles. Like a really long time. You're not sure how long, there's no clock in here and you can't feel your phone in your back pocket which means they probably took it. For what reason, you don't know. What are you going to do? Call the police? Maybe a priest? Would that even help you at all?

You're tired. So freaking tired. The emotional stress of the day finally catching up to you. But your brain just won't let you sleep in a house with three demons wandering around. God you could use a drink. But you wouldn't know where they keep their alcohol, if they have any. Or even, like, where they keep their kitchen. Actually you haven't had anything to eat or drink since some snacks on the road.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door. Well that's weirdly polite. Then the door opens without any acknowledgement from you. Far more par for the course. You screw your eyes shut instantly, not feeling ready to see any of them yet. You hear whoever is at the door sigh and close the door, their steps indicate that they stayed in the room and were now moving towards you.

"Are you going to hide in here forever? Because I must say, that is quite the waste of your time." It's Dark because of course it is. He seems to have taken upon himself the role of peacemaker. He sets something on the bed in front of you, and considering what it was last time you aren't too keen to find out what, and settles himself on the bed to your left and by your shins. "Open your eyes, [Y/N]. I'm not going to scare you."

You take a deep breath, steeling your courage, and slowly open your eyes. Of course, you're still flat on your back, so all you see is the ceiling. You, again slowly, sit up until you're facing Dark, resting on your elbows. You blink at the scene before you. Dark sitting on your bed, one of his legs pulled up onto it while the other dangles off the edge, looking completely at ease in this room, sitting on this bed. And a tray in front of you with a one-cup tea set on it and biscuits. You blinked again just to be sure it wasn't another book that would turn your world upside down. Still a tea tray.

"I figured you might need some nourishment. I don't believe you've eaten or drunk anything since you got here," Dark told you. For a second you hesitate, your mind flashing danger that the tea could be poisoned like this is some hostage situation. You quickly dismiss the thought as these people poisoning you seems very unlikely. If they wanted you dead they seem to have a multitude of ways to do it that are probably much more reliable than poison. You still hesitate just a bit though, before sitting up, tucking your legs under you, and taking the teacup. There is honey and milk and sugar on the tray, but you're barely patient enough to remember to blow on it before taking a sip. It's one of the fruity herbal teas that your grandma loved and it feels heavenly in your dry mouth and down your scratchy throat. You, as quickly as you can with hot tea, guzzle down the rest without even so much as looking up from the cup. You hear a chuckle in front of you as you drain the dregs.

"More?" Dark asks, offering up the tea pot. You nod and he pours more tea into your cup. You sip it slowly this time as he puts the pot down and studies you. You raise an eyebrow at his gaze.

"Just like your grandmother indeed," Dark says. "She was quite the tea drinker as well. I've never really understood it. Coffee seems a much more satisfying choice of caffeine intake. Even Anti prefers coffee and he's European. Or at least he pretends to be."

You wince at the mention of Anti, but try to play it off as you say, "I actually do prefer coffee, but I like tea as well." It had been one of the few things you had disagreed on with your grandmother who found coffee much too bitter for her tastes.

"Hmm," Dark hummed his acknowledgement of your statement as he picked up the Register from where it had slid to your side. He closed the book, his fingers tracing over the words on the cover.

"What's that say?" You nod down at the book.

"The same thing it says on the title page, just in my language. Mable thought it looked 'cooler' that way than in English," Dark told you, his hands stilling at having been caught.

"You're language? Like…" you still feel odd saying it outloud. "Like a demonic language?" Dark nodded. "So all that religion stuff… it's all true then?"

Dark takes a deep breath, the sigh coming from it even deeper. "Yes and no. The way religion reaches your kind is unreliable and there are always mortals who lie in the hopes of getting attention and power. Because of this most religious texts are largely untrue. However the fundamentals of religion, the most basic things really, are derived from truth. Like Hell and demons. While there will always be misconceptions about these things, their existence, at least, is true. Then, of course, there is the fact that there isn't strictly one true religion. While I can't say that every religion has some truth to it, many of them do. There are whole pantheons of Gods and Goddesses who are responsible for the creation of this universe. Some go by many names and others by no names at all. Really, you humans trying to understand anything celestial is really quite hopeless and you're better off trying to enjoy your pathetically short lives than focus on the hereafter."

Dark's little speeches or monologues or whatever you want to call them always leave you reeling. The way he says things so matter of factly and how he just drops a bunch of information in your lap is so jarring. You don't even know where to begin with that. You feel a little offended on behalf of humanity at his condescending tone, but you feel objecting at all when it's clear his mind is made up would be pointless. You're also going to try to ignore the whole existence of Gods and Goddesses thing for now as thinking about anything that big that doesn't affect your here and now is just going to succeed in making your head implode.

"So, um, on the whole demon front, you wanna tell me what's real and what's misconceptions?" You ask, wondering what the chances are that you'll sit through another monologue or he'll just ignore the question.

"Oh, [Y/N], that could take hours, perhaps even days, to go over. Perhaps it'd be better if you just learned along the way." The way he said it had you believing he was telling the truth, that he really just didn't want to take the time, rather than him just dodging the question.

"Can you at least tell me what, I don't know, repels you? How I can defend myself?"

Something flashed in Dark's eyes at that, but it was gone before you could identify what it could have been.

"Why ever would you need to defend yourself against us?"

You raised an eyebrow at that. "Gee, I don't know. It couldn't possibly be because since meeting the three of you I've both experienced the worst pain in my life and fainted for the first time in years." There is sarcasm literally dripping from your voice.

Dark's face hardened. "Yes, well I've already explained myself to you. And as for Anti, I am dealing with him. But understand that you are under our protection now, the last thing Anti or any of us would do is actually cause you harm."

You couldn't help your eyes narrowing in suspicion as you asked, "Why though? Why are you doing all of this? Any of this?"

"Because Mable asked us to."

"But why listen to her?" You looked down at the book. "Why even keep her around in the first place?"

And there was that lip quirk again. That I'm-going-to-ignore-you-now quirk.

"You should get some rest," Dark said, standing up. "You've had a long day."

"But-" you weren't able to protest his leaving though when he took one step towards the door and just vanished into thin air, taking the Register with him but leaving the tea tray.

You sighed. Just when you were starting to get answers, starting to sate your curiosity, he cuts and runs. You have a feeling this is going to be a trend for however long you stay here. Which, unfortunately, you've decided is for the foreseeable future. It's stupid, you know that. After everything that's happened, any sane person would have left a long time ago. But it seems, apparently, it's going to take more than three demons to scare you off. You're just not sure if you're dreading or hoping for that more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)
> 
> But, like, seriously, I'm dying to know what you guys think of my portrayal of the characters. Anything I should change? And how are you liking the Reader so far? I really am trying to give her a personality that is favorable without pigeonholing you.


	14. Time for a Coffee Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes all you need is a nice cup of coffee to smooth things over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I make it? It's still Friday for me, so I feel like I made it.
> 
> This chapter marks the end of the introductory chapters. If all goes according to plan, shit will start to kick off next chapter.

It's about four in the morning when you finally have the courage to venture out of your room. You had tried sleeping, but it came in bursts and fits. Anytime you did slip into unconsciousness, your dreams were filled with black eyes, spat insults, cackles, and bleeding neck wounds. Suffice to say, you were never asleep for long.

And you were hungry. So freaking hungry. Sure, Dark had brought you some biscuits, but you had literally skipped two meals yesterday. One meal and a couple snacks do not a nutritious day make. So it was time to go on a hunt for the kitchen.

You slowly sneak out of your room, your ears on high alert, listening for any sound. It seems to be silent, at least in this part of the house. You chose four for a reason. It's that time of the day when no one in their right mind is awake. It's too late for those who claim to be night owls and too early for those who claim to be early birds. Really unless you have to commute, this is not a time to be awake. And you're pretty sure demons don't have to commute. You easily make it out of your room and over to the stairs. Again, this place isn't decrepit, so despite what you think is about to happen, the stairs don't squeak when you step on them. They're also marble, so unlikely to squeak even when they are super old. You sigh as a tension you didn't realise was there, bleeds out of your shoulders. You slowly make your way down the stairs and that's as far as you got when planning this. You already eliminated the left (from the entryway) hallway as leading to the kitchen, so you decide to go about this as if you had originally decided to do a loop of the ground floor and continued with the back left (again from the entryway) hallway.

Well, as you go through it you realise, it's actually a doorway as it leads straight into the room. Well actually it's a door that has a stopper keeping it fully open. The room is a lounge. A really nice lounge. Your jaw goes slack just from the sight of it. It follows the same color patterns as the entryway, all light, airy colors, but with a more modern twist. The sofas, one large one parallel to the wall with the doorway and two loveseats perpendicular to the large one, are all a light cream color. There is a blue and white rug underneath a glass coffee table and as you turn to your left you can see the television mounted on the wall. It's easily one of the biggest TVs you've ever seen. But by far the most eye catching part of the room is the shelves on the wall to the left of the TV. They line pretty much the whole wall. They're filled with gaming systems, controllers, and games themselves. Like, every console and game you could hope for from the three pillars of console gaming. All proudly on display.

You slap a hand over your mouth to keep from giggling. They're gamer nerds! Or at least one of them is, but you're willing to bet that at least two are or else the stuff wouldn't be so prominently displayed. That's actually really cool. You like games. Admittedly you're mostly a PC gamer, which, oh yeah, you still need to get that desk, but you've done some console gaming in your day. All at friends' houses though because your parents hadn't thought games were a productive use of your time. But having a computer was important and you were able to sneak in playing old DOS games while on it, and so grew your love of PC games. You're excited by the prospect of playing some new games and visiting some old favorites.

You don't have to go back to the entryway to go through the next hall that's actually probably a stoppered open door, because there is a door to get to the next room on the wall to your right and back by the far wall. You make a vow to come back to this room as soon as possible to entertain and distract yourself. Then you go through the door to the next room. Which is, in fact, the kitchen.

"Thank fuck," you mutter. While you're a little disappointed you're exploring is ending so soon, you're more relieved to finally be getting some food.

The kitchen follows the same basic look as the rest of the house that you've seen. Light colors and modern furniture. Well modern appliances, in the case of the kitchen. Seriously, there are some contraptions on the counters that you couldn't even begin to guess what they do. The kitchen was yet another place you and your grandmother differed. She followed the stereotypical grandma archetype of being a fantastic cook and you, well. Let's just not talk about the Great Pasta Fire of 2017.

You can see little touches of your grandma all over the kitchen. Despite it's modern look, it has bits of "grandma's kitchenette" sprinkled throughout it. Clearly handmade doilies. Random knick knacks. Way too many salt and pepper shakers. Et cetera.

You go around the huge island in the middle of the kitchen and approach what you think must be the coffee maker. It has a little symbol of a steaming cup on it and it is under the cabinet with a bunch of mugs in it. You decide that cabinets with glass windows into them are weird. Why have a door on the cabinet if you can still see into it? But, anyway, they have about as many mugs combined as are sitting in a box in your room. There are a couple plain ones, one black and one white. Another white one with black text that says 'Mob Boss' on it. A handful of video game reference mugs and a slightly smaller handful of anime reference mugs. Two mugs with a flower design you recognize as coming from a set that your grandma owned. And finally…

You take down the last mug. It's a garish pink, yellow, and purple monstrosity with the lettering '#1 Grandma' on it. It has a butterfly that is now super glued onto it. You remember breaking that. You were sleeping over at you grandma's old house and having some hot chocolate back when you were very young. You dropped the mug, luckily on the carpet so it didn't shatter, but the butterfly did break off. You cried for a good five minutes as that was how long it took your grandma to fix it.

You blink as you feel a tear slide down your cheek and quickly put the mug away, instead grabbing a mug with all the Eeveelutions on it. Then you turn to the probably-a-coffee-maker. Why couldn't it have been a Keurig? The thing has multiple nozzles from which liquid can come out. Nozzles! Multiple of them! And it's fucking big too, taking up a good portion of the large countertop.

You've spent a good two minutes just looking for the on-button when a voice interrupts your muttered curses of firey death to the machine.

"Did you sleep in your clothes or just not at all?"

A squeak, an honest to God squeak, comes out of your mouth at that voice. It's different from the two voices you've heard from him. His normal deep voice and his crazed high pitch voice. This one is like his normal, but even deeper and obviously rough with sleep. Well at least one of you slept well after yesterday, you think bitterly.

You don't respond as you continue searching the machine in front of you for that stupid little circle with a line that denotes a power button.

"Move," Anti says as he pushes your shoulder with his forearm to nudge you out of the way. It works, you flee about halfway to the otherside of the kitchen. Anti just chuckles and magically starts up the machine. He gets a container with a fancy label on it that you don't recognize out from the shelf above the mugs. He scoops coffee beans out of it and puts them into a section of the machine and when he flicks the lid closed you can hear the distinct sound of coffee beans being ground. Then he takes the mug you had sat beside the machine and in seconds has coffee being poured into it. He does a few more things with the other nozzles before pulling the now full mug away from the machine. It's a lot like the coffee scene from that crappy Green Hornet movie.

He places the mug on the counter and slides it an arms length away from himself and towards you. He says nothing more as he grabs a mug, this one with FNAF animatronics on it, and repeats the process, this time with only the coffee nozzle. He, fearlessly, takes a sip from his steaming mug, raising an eyebrow at you as he does so. You cautiously approach, getting just close enough to get the mug he apparently made for you. You blink down at the frothy liquid in your cup. Well now you know what the other nozzles are for. You take a tentative sip and it's good. Like really good. Like café in Italy good. You can't help the moan that escapes your throat at the taste. Anti chuckles again.

"So, video games, huh?" You awkwardly attempt conversation. Anti perks up.

"Yeah, you play them too, right? Mable mentioned that she used to play with her grandchildren sometimes." Anti looked such a contrast to the last time you saw him as he basically bounced on his toes.

"Yeah. Grandma Mable had an N64 back when my cousin and I were younger. Neither of our parents thought that games were a good use of time, so we only ever got to play console games at her house. She was actually really good for someone who didn't grow up with games." You smiled at the memory, but the smile slowly faded as you remembered that you'd never get to play the newest console with her.

"We have an N64, you know," Anti mentioned, gesturing towards the other room. "I bet I could kick your ass in Mario Party."

You snorted, swallowing back tears.

"Yeah, that, uh, that sounds fun."

Anti then proceeded to drag you into the other room. You went rigid when he touched you, still a bit terrified of the man, and stumbled your way along with him.

As you play, you decide that there is one thing about demons you know to be fact and that's that demons cheat.

"Dude, isn't kind of fucking early to be play-" Mare groaned as he walked into the living room, stretching. You felt your face heat. Dude was walking around in only a pair of boxers. "Oh, hey [Y/N/N]. You're up early."

"I, uh, couldn't really sleep," you responded, trying to focus on the game as that bitch com Mario got a star. Fucking Anti and his insistence on making the coms hard.

"That probably makes sense. Hey, Anti, add me in," Mare said as he sat down and plugged in a controller. You yelped as the console made a weird whirring sound and suddenly Waluigi was in place of the Mario com with ten coins and zero stars. "Ah, come on, you're like halfway through the game. Give me something, man," Mare complained.

"Wake up earlier next time and you can start at the right time like the rest of us," Anti giggled. Mare muttered obscenities under his breath.

And, yep, demons really do cheat. It makes sense how Anti does it, but you have no idea how Mare could end up in second when he started halfway through the game with only ten coins. You're just happy to get third and have beaten the com.

Demons also talk a lot of shit and end up in physical fights after the game ends. You're currently sat on the sofa as Mare and Anti wrestle on the ground between the TV and the coffee table.

Eventually you're able to sneak away back to the kitchen when your stomach reminds you how hungry you are. And there's Dark, using the coffeemaker from hell.

"Fighting over Mario Party?" Dark asks, not even looking up. You nod then realize he's not looking at you, but before you can correct yourself he speaks again. "Just give it some time. They'll kiss and make up eventually."

You nod and look through the fridge and cupboards as Dark leaves with his coffee. As you prepare your cereal you think about how weirdly domestic this morning has been. Maybe living here won't be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	15. I'd Like to File a Complaint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just be sure to go through the proper channels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I'm posting a day early because I missed last week's upload. Emphasis on this being a day early and not an extra post (don't expect one tomorrow).
> 
> I've been struggling with these upcoming chapters for whatever reason. Huge shout-out to my Beta (real life friend without an AO3 account) because she was a major help in improving these next chapters.
> 
> Also, this chapter and the next are on the shorter side because they are setting up plot points without a conclusion, so sorry about that, but all will be revealed eventually.
> 
> Finally, please remember that these are fictional people based on real people. I do not think I know most of the people I am writing well enough to write them accurately.
> 
> And I've talked enough now. Enjoy.

"Come on, [Y/N/N], they can't be that bad."

You groaned and buried your head in a pillow at Amy's words. You finally got around to Skyping Amy and Kathryn a week after arriving at the house.

"They're the worst, Amy!" You complained. "Mark basically just acts like I don't exist, Nate has no concept of the term privacy, and I'm pretty sure Jack is clinically insane." You had seen Dark sign a document with the name 'Mark Fischbach' while he worked at the kitchen table one day and when you asked him about it, he told you about their human aliases. Mark and Nate made sense, but Anti being called Jack? That was weird.

"You're not, like, in danger, are you?" Kathryn asked, sounding very concerned.

"No," you sighed. It was a half lie. Part of you still felt in danger, but Dark had assured you that you were safe. "He's all bark, and no bite. It's just that his bark is rather scary."

"Real question though, are they hot?" Amy cut in. You rolled your eyes. Amy had been trying to get you to date again since Gary and you weren't having any of it.

"It doesn't matter how good someone looks if they suck," you responded.

"So then they're like ridiculously hot then," Amy concluded. You sighed.

"Okay, I guess you could say they are physically appealing." But you wouldn't be surprised if it was because of the whole demon thing. Like they were made good looking to better get people to trust them so they could make deals or rip out throats or whatever it is they do.

"Amy, I think you're missing the point," Kathryn pointed out. "[Y/N/N] is living with people she doesn't like."

"Can't you just kick them out if you don't like them?" Amy asked.

No, but they could kick you out.

"I mean, yes, sort of." Fuck but you hated lying to them. "But my grandma seemed to be okay with them, so maybe they aren't so bad?"

"I still think it's weird that she rented out to these guys in the first place. What do they do that they can afford to rent a room in a mansion, anyways?" Amy questioned. You could hear Chica bark in the background and Amy hurried to let the dog out. You continued talking when she came back.

"I don't actually know. But Dar-" You quickly corrected yourself, "Mark has an office in the house as well and is always doing paperwork, so probably something boring." Calling them other names was hard.

"Probably investment banking," Kathryn said. "I have an uncle who does that and he is absolutely loaded."

Your brows furrowed as Kathryn and Amy continued to talk. You weren't paying attention to either of them. You were stuck on Kathryn's background noise.

"Hey, Kath, what are you listening to?"

"Hm?" Kathryn grabbed her phone. "Oh, um, I just had it on Pandora. Looks like a song called Grounded by a band called Give Heart. Why? Do you know them?"

You shook your head.

"They don't sound famili-" you stop talking as Kathryn turns up the music and your eyes bug out of your skull. "Who's the singer?"

There was a beat as Kathryn scanned through the small wiki that Pandora gave.

"Blah, blah, blah… Lead singer Nathan Sharp. Wait-"

"No way!" Amy yelled, causing Chica to bark in the background. "Hot dude with no sense of privacy is a rockstar?!"

"Apparently." You already knew he had a band, but you had no idea he was radio level famous.

"Huh." Kathryn's monotone voice got your and Amy's attention. "I'm just going to read this verbatim." She cleared her throat. "'Give Heart was a band that came to popularity in June of 2018. While most of their music is covers of popular punk rock songs, they had four original songs to their name before they fell off the face of the earth in May of 2019. Rumor has it that lead singer Nathan Sharp abandoned the rest of the band and hasn't been heard of since. The remaining members created the company Give Heart Records and have one client by the name Christina Vee who has been recording cover songs herself.' It goes on from there, but that's the last that's said about Nathan."

"May of 2019? As in two months ago? As in-"

"As in when my grandma died," you cut Amy off.

"Dude, did we just solve a mystery?" Amy was bouncing with excitement.

"Amy!" Kathryn admonished.

"Oh, right, sorry," Amy apologized, chagrined, but you shook your head.

"No, it's okay. I'm fine," you told her honestly. You weren't about to break at the mention of your grandma's name. Not anymore.

"So an investment banker and a rockstar living together, huh? This sounds like the opener to a bad joke," Amy said, trying to lighten the mood. "Or some bad B movie."

Oh, she had no idea.

Conversation kind of died after that, and eventually you ended the call with them with a farewell and them promising that they'd find time to visit sometime next month.

You ended up researching Give Heart some more and found that they had quite the cult following and the mystery behind Nate's disappearance was a mess of theories. Nothing conclusive ever came up. Everything from simple band disagreements to him being a Nazi spy were thrown about. Though most seem to believe the most likely scenario is that he is in rehab somewhere as the rest of the band's comments have only ever been them "wishing him the best".

Eventually you moved on to actually listening to the music. They were a really good band. Like the wiki said, it was mostly cover music, but they had four singles. Grounded was their first, the one that was playing on Kathryn's phone. Then not too long later came StopRewind. Then one a while later called All I See. And then one a good chunk later called Dream Alone. The times between songs were weirdly inconsistent. Like he just wrote when the idea struck and never sat down with the intention of writing a song. And you knew they were all Mare's songs because they were all 'written by Nathan Sharp'.

"Turn that the fuck off, now!"

"Eep!" You squeaked and jumped as Mare suddenly appeared inches in front of your face. You quickly scrambled back as Mare forced shut down your PC, causing the song StopRewind coming from the speakers to silence. Your chair hit something, probably the rug, and you went toppling over. You cursed as you landed hard on your hip.

"I- I- I-" you stuttered helplessly. Mare didn't even seem to care that you had fallen over. Asshole.

"Don't play that song, or any of that music in this house, do you understand me?" Mare's voice was a dangerous hiss.

"Y-yes?" It came out more as a question than a statement.

Mare stormed out of the room. You collapsed back onto the floor, exhausted from the encounter and in pain from the fall.

"[Y/N]?" You jumped at Dark's voice and curled in on yourself. You had been zoning out for what felt like hours. It was the third (or was it the fourth?) time in a week that you had been scared shitless by one of your roommates. It couldn't be healthy to live this way.

You peeked out from armadillo-ing to find Dark standing in the middle of your room. The desk, which you found in the attic and matched the rest of the room's furniture, was by the shelves and faced away from the door. It was entirely possible he had used the door, but you were willing to bet he did the interdimensional travel thing he does. Anti had tried to explain it to you, but you only got the gist of it. He disappears to a dimension called The Upside Down and then reappears somewhere else back in this dimension. You weren't going to think about it too hard, the point was he could basically teleport.

"Why are you only nice to me when the others aren't?" You thought out loud. And there was that damn lip quirk, so you know that question isn't about to be answered.

"Mare's music is a bit of a sore subject. I should have mentioned it before, but I didn't think you were a fan, considering you didn't recognize him."

"I sort of found it by coincidence," you told him, slightly embarrassed for whatever reason. Like you'd been caught doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.

"Hm," Dark hummed his acknowledgement. "Just don't bring it up, okay?"

"But why is it a sore subject?"

"None of your concern," he waved you off.

"Bu-"

"Trust me, [Y/N], you don't want to know." His voice was sharp and unyielding. Something told you that you really didn't want to know. But, boy, did you want to know. Maybe someday you will.

You sighed as you finally picked yourself up off of the floor once Dark had left. You turned your computer back on and instantly closed out of the playlist you had made of Mare's music. You couldn't bring yourself to delete it though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	16. Stir Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you just need to get out of the house for a while and meet a potential serial killer. Wait, what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My stupid alarm didn't go off on Friday....

Apart from the blip that was Mare discovering you listening to his music, not much had really happened since the first couple days. You found a sort of rhythm in the house. You'd wake up and go down to the kitchen to have breakfast. Anti had shown you how to use the coffee machine and you could make a decent cup, though not anything like the one he had made you. You'd have breakfast at the kitchen bar, as you didn't feel like traversing to the dining area that was next to the kitchen. If you went through the other door in the dining area, the one not connected to the kitchen, you'd end up in the hallway you hadn't explored on the ground floor, the one opposite the one with the library. The other two doors in that hallway, the ones towards the front of the house, were another closet and bathroom, nearly identical to the ones on the other end of the house.

The rest of the house wasn't really yours to explore. The room across from yours was Dark's room and the door at the end of that hall was a bathroom. The door to the left at the top of the stairs was Dark's office. You were under threat of death if you ever went in there. The room to the right was the guest room, which you did peek into to find it looked like a nice, simple guest room with a bed, dresser, and desk. The other hall held Anti's room to the left and Mare's to the right with a bathroom at the end of the hall. You hadn't been in any of their rooms, and honestly didn't really want to.

Depending on when you woke up, you either had breakfast with Dark or Anti. Anti was the earlier riser of the two and if you were up before nine it was Anti. Dark had breakfast at precisely nine every morning, so if you got up later, then you'd eat with Dark. Sometimes you caught a weird inbetween time when you were alone for breakfast. And Mare rarely got up before noon, so you never had breakfast with him. For a while, after breakfast you'd go to your room and wallow as you messed around on your computer. The place had great wifi for being in the middle of nowhere. But you found your grandma's nice camera when you went looking through her stuff and decided to take up a new hobby. So now you went out into the forest and took pictures between breakfast and lunch. The forest was your backyard, afterall. Apart from a deck with a seating area and hot tub and a small shed, there was nothing else to the backyard but forest. You know you own five acres of it, but you aren't sure where that begins and ends. The rest is either national park or other private property, but with no close neighbors, you aren't worried about if you wander off of your property.

Then you have lunch, usually with Mare who is just waking up, and the rest of the day is spent a number of different ways. Usually on the computer, sometimes playing video games with Mare or Anti. Dark claims not to like things that are so childish, but Anti swears that he's seen Dark play games on his computer. Once you even went into town to look around. You were going to have to find a job soon, even if the guys insisted it wasn't necessary. Apparently Dark paid for all the bills of the house and since the house was already paid off, no one paid rent. Dark pointed out that the three could start paying rent if you needed a source of income, but you waved that off. You were going to go stir crazy if you didn't get a job.

Then you had dinner and hung out in your room until going to bed. The whole thing just felt too normal. So you weren't surprised when something changed that two weeks after you moved in.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

You nearly toppled off the cliff you were standing near the edge of at the voice. You had just found this spot this morning. It was a picture esque spot. The cliff looked out on a forest below and mountains ahead. You were pretty sure that this is where your property ended. There was a nice tree that was slightly isolated from the others and closer to the cliff that would be a good spot to sit and look out at the view.

You turned to see a man standing behind you. He had cropped sandy blonde hair and was wearing what looked to be perfect hiking gear, if a little worn and dirty. Okay, a lot worn and dirty. Seriously, how long has this guy been out here? And was that blood?

"Th-this is private property," you stuttered out. If that was blood, it likely wasn't his as he wasn't acting hurt. He could be a serial killer or something!

"Is it really?" He asked, seemingly amused.

What are you going to do? Behind you is a cliff and in front of you is a potential serial killer. Huh. Not a great outlook.

"So I'm guessing you'd be the new owner, then?" He continued after a pause. "I'm Robin, by the way." He held out his hand.

Robin? Why did that sound familiar? Eh, you knew like three Robins in school.

Your eyes narrowed at the man. You weren't about to give him your name.

"Okay then," he withdrew his hand. "No, it's cool, I get it. I'll just head out then." And with that he retreated back into the forest. You almost felt bad at how dejected the man looked. But he was covered in blood, how were you supposed to react?

You made your way back home after that.

"Hey, how was the hike?" Mare asked, playing some sort of FPS game. The back door led into the living room. You hadn't noticed it before because of the curtains.

"Apart from running into a potential serial killer? Great!" You replied sarcastically. "Seriously, what is up with this place?"

"Potential serial killer?" Mare questioned, pausing the game and looking to you with concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, dude was covered in blood."

"Oh! You must have met-"

"Mare. Shut up." Dark's voice startled you and you turned to see him at the door to the kitchen, glass of water in hand.

The two demons stared each other down. You felt a tension physically build in the room, like a pressure. The room also felt extremely hot, like uncomfortably so. The whole thing was giving you a headache, and you couldn't tell if it was from the heat or the pressure. Probably both.

In the end, Mare blinked first, looking away and picking up his controller. And just like that, the pressure in the room dissipated. The heat was still there, but it wasn't increasing anymore. Like the heater had been blasting and then was abruptly turned off.

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just keep secrets then," Mare grumbled.

"We're keeping yours. You should allow Anti that same courtesy." And with that Dark left.

Anti? What did he have to do with this?

"So…?" You questioned, completely lost.

"You want to play?" Mare asked, clearly avoiding the previous topic of conversation.

"I actually have to upload these pictures. I ran out of space on the chip."

Mare waved you off and you headed off the your room. You paused at the top of the stairs and looked towards the right hall. In the end you decided you'd rather not know and turned left, headed towards your room.

You spent the rest of the evening looking through pictures that weren't yours. Half the chip was full of your grandmother's pictures. While most were of the forest like yours, there were some of the guys as well as some people you didn't know. There was even one of your grandmother herself. It was in a series of Mare and Anti messing about with flour in the kitchen. One of them must have taken the camera from her. It was of her laughing and waving her spatula at whoever held the camera.

You felt a single tear roll down your cheek and into the curve of your smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	17. Incubyou, Incubme, Incubus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has finally come through the Circle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has gone through many, many rewrites because it just never felt right. This is the best version I've got. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> IMPORTANT: I need ideas! Specifically ideas pre-relationship as the majority of my remaining ideas are after they start the relationship. Some sort of scenario to put them in or a new YouTuber to come through the Circle. Fair warning: I have a good chunk of YouTubers in close relation to the three already figured out, so if you have a suggestion that I already have an idea for, please don't be offended if I go with my original idea. And if you don't feel comfortable leaving an idea as a comment for all to see, please refer to my bio where you can find my Tumblr which you can use to message me. Be sure to leave your AO3 or Tumblr user ID if you'd like me to credit you if I use your idea. If you don't want the credit, then I'll just say 'from Anonymous'. Thanks!

You knew something was wrong when you won at Mario Kart. You looked up to see both Mare and Anti weren't paying attention to the game at all and were instead looking to the door.

"What's-"

A cloud of smoke darted out the door and a bolt of electricity disappeared into the nearest outlet. You squeaked, curling in on yourself. You hated when they did that near you. You're paranoid about being zapped or burned.

You slowly peek out of the door that led to the main entrance. You can hear muffled voices coming from the right and slowly made your way towards them. They were coming from the library.

"What do you mean she died?!" A voice came through loud enough for you to hear before you even pressed your ear to the door. An unfamiliar voice.

"I mean she died," Dark replied to the stranger, calmly. You could just barely hear him with your ear to the door. "Humans do that, you know. She was old for their life span." Was his voice getting louder? Suddenly the door opened and you nearly fell into the room. "Did you need something, [Y/N]?"

"I, uh," you blushed at being caught. "No?"

Dark rolled his eyes and stepped aside. In the room were the three demons you knew and one other person who looked like how you might have described a demon before you met the real thing. Some sort of human-goat hybrid. His lower half was a goat's hindlegs. His top half was human apart from the horns and claws. He was wearing what you could only describe as lots of leather. Like BDSM level leather.

"Uh…" you trailed off dumbly, your blush intensifying. How could one be so attracted to someone who wasn't completely human?

"Who's the chick?" The man you didn't know asked.

"She's off limits is who she is, Sexbang," Mare glowered, glaring at the man.

"She's Mable's granddaughter. She lives here now," Dark explained. "[Y/N], this is Danny. Danny, this is [Y/N]."

Suddenly Danny was in front of you, holding both your hands in his.

"I am so sorry for your loss."

Your blush intensified as you felt heat pool in your stomach.

"I, uh, thank you?"

"Did Mable teach you any of her cookie recipes by chance?"

You blinked. The odd question bringing you a bit out of your lust filled haze.

"What?"

"Cookies. Did she teach you how to make any of her cookies?" He looked deadly serious about this.

"I mean, sort of? I was really young thou-"

"What about a recipe book? Did she leave you o- ow!" Danny yelped. You jumped when you saw a knife sticking out of his arm.

"What did Mare just say?" Anti demanded, another knife in his hand.

"You're mean, Anti." Danny pouted as he removed the knife. Black ooze leaked from the wound.

You felt both faint and incredibly turned on. The fuck was going on?

"Here." You turned to see Dark holding out the Register to you. "I suggest you do your research elsewhere."

He didn't have to tell you twice. You snatched the book and all but ran to your room.

\---

Name: Danny Sexbang  
Species: Incubus  
Date arrived: July 28, 2015

Danny arrived late at night and I did not meet him until the next day. He explained that he comes to earth every couple of years or so to stock up on energy. All he needs is a place to stay inbetween summonings. Apparently it's just easier for him to come to the Circle first than to be summoned directly from Hell. Dark allowed it.

Danny is an interesting one to have around, to say the least. First and foremost because of his pheromones. It's been a while since I last felt this out of control of my body. It's like being a teenager again with raging hormones. Danny offered to help calm them, but even if I had wanted to sleep with him, Dark forbid Danny from feeding off of me. Apparently that's what incubi do, they feed off of sexual energy.

Danny also has an obsession with cookies. I baked a batch one day and he took the sheet out before they were even done and devoured them. It's actually pretty nice to have someone appreciate my baking again, since my daughters won't allow my granddaughters to come over these days.

Danny has visited a few times. He seems to have changed from once every couple of years to just about annually.

\---

Well that explained so much, you thought as you put the Register on your bookshelf. You really ought to get around to flipping through that one of these days. But you can't exactly concentrate at the moment. Your grandmother was right, you felt like a horny teenager again. Time for a long, cold shower.

When you got back into your room, the Register was no longer on your shelf. God damnit.

\---

Well, the one good thing about Danny being around was that it got you out of the house. You just couldn't stand those damn pheromones. They put you on edge. Of course masturbating would probably help, but like hell were you going to do that in that house. Who knows how good demons can hear. Also, you just realized that the only time you will ever be able to masturbate in your own home is when (read: if) all your roommates aren't home. Your life sucked.

You didn't end up with the waitressing job you were planning on. Instead, you ended up talking to a local art gallery owner. He was interested in your new hobby and looked at your pictures. Apparently you were better than you thought you were. He asked you to get some prints done of a few pictures and he put them on display. It wasn't the most steady job in the world, but you didn't need it to be. You just wanted some spending money.

The other thing that happened was that you ran into that AJ guy again. And he turned out not to be so bad. He apologized for what he did and you two got to talking. He introduced you to some friends of his. Some were other vampires, his "coven", and some were just normal humans. They went to the local college and made videos in their spare time. Video game musicals. They were awesome.

You decided not to tell the guys about your new friends.

\---

Alright, pheromones aside, Danny wasn't so bad.

Your car was having issues and none of the guys would let you borrow theirs, which were all ridiculously nice by the way, so you had to stay home or walk. You were paranoid on hikes now, so you braved staying home.

You had spent the day locked up in your room until you heard music blasting. And Danny's voice was the one singing. You found him and Mare in Mare's room.

"Puppies in space! Puppies in space! Puppies in space!" Danny's voice echoed through the door with epic reverberation. "They can't survive."

You snorted as the song abruptly ended.

"[Y/N/N]? What are you doing out here?" Mare asked as he opened the door. You blushed as Mare gestured you into the room.

It was the first time you stepped foot in the room. Apart from the bed in the corner, it didn't look like a bedroom. The walls were covered with that foam you see in sound booths and there were instruments everywhere. The only other things in the room were a desk with a PC and a sound board.

You spent most of the day with them as they goofed around. Writing funny lyrics and putting them to tunes. It was weird how mad Mare got about his music, but he was totally fine helping Danny with his.

Eventually Danny convinced you to make cookies. Anti had come down at the smell so the four of you were in the kitchen making cookies. Well, you were making cookies. The boys were just being annoying.

Danny was trying to steal cookies and cookie dough at every turn.

("Danny! Stop!" You giggled, swatting him away from the cookies you were placing on cooling racks.

"I'm impervious to heat. I don't need them cooled off," he complained.

"Then why aren't you the one taking them out of the oven?"

"You wouldn't let me near them!")

Anti was trying to get Mare to have a flour fight with him.

("Anti! Come on, man! This is a new shirt," Mare complained when Anti threw a handful of flour at him.

"Don't be such a drama queen!" Anti giggled as he threw more flour.

"Dude! You're gonna get it in the bourbon!")

And Mare was drinking and trying to spike the cookies.

("Mare, bourbon isn't an ingredient!" You fumed as he tried to pour it into the dough for the third time.

"Not with that attitude it's not," Mare said, trying once more to spike the cookies.

"At least aim for the cinnamon ones," Danny told him.

"No!" You yelled, diving for that bowl before Mare could try to spike it.)

All while you were on edge trying to keep your hormones in check. You're just surprised you didn't blow a gasket.

\---

"So do you have OCD, or…?" You glanced up to see Danny sitting in the other end of the counter you were cleaning. Mare and Anti had gotten bored and wandered off a while ago and you could have sworn Danny left with them. Apparently not.

"I don't know what you're talking about," you told him and turned back to scrubbing the already spotless countertop.

"You're frustrated," Danny concluded after a moment of silence.

"Of course I'm fucking frustrated!" You exploded, tossing down the scrubber. "You come in here with your stupid pheromones and expect me to be fine? I mean, fuck, it's like I'm a freaking teenager again and need to grind against anything and everything!" You blush as you come back to yourself and realize what you just admitted to.

"Except that you're an adult now and know how to handle these things," Danny pointed out. "So why aren't you handling them?"

"Because my room isn't soundproofed and there's never not someone else in the house," you groaned and collapsed onto a bar stool at the island.

"So? Who cares if they hear? Masturbation isn't anything to be ashamed of, you know." Danny seemed honestly upset.

"Not everyone is as comfortable with these things as you are, Danny. And it's not even like shame or whatever, it's just that I'd prefer to keep that kind of shit private and some people around here don't know the meaning of personal space."

"Alright, I guess I get that." A pause as Danny looked thoughtful. "How about this, I'll drag Anti and Mare off somewhere tomorrow night. I hold no power over Dark, but I doubt he's the one you're worried about anyway."

You took that into consideration. Dark works in his office late into the night, so he'd be a good enough distance that, so long as you were quiet, he likely wouldn't hear you. And even if he does have some sort of super hearing and does hear you, it's Dark. You're pretty sure the man is asexual or at least so focussed on work that he doesn't really think or care about sex.

"Deal."

\---

Sufficed to say, the rest of Danny's stay was a bit more bearable. Still, it was a bittersweet feeling when he left after a week long stay. At least you survived your first visit from the Circle. Maybe this all wouldn't be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. (Seriously I promise you that as long as your goal is to better my writing and not tear me down, I will not be offended if you have a critique)


	18. Writer's Block Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically just my call for an AMA.

So, basically, writer's block sucks. I'm halfway through a chapter with no idea where it is going and debating on scraping it to do something else at the moment, and have just been generally stuck on how to get from where I am to where I want to go. So I decided to make up for it earlier today by replying to some comments and I've officially decided: fuck it, let's make this official and do an AMA. While I'd like the focus to be on the story, I really am up for answering damn near any question. I've never had something popular enough that I felt like I could do this successfully, so here's hoping for a good turnout.


	19. Bad Shit Happening and Hiatus

Right off the bat: I am so sorry if you had this on your alerts and got excited, but this once again isn't a real chapter.

Just wanted to post an update with all the shit that is going on and now that the story is on official Hiatus.

As of today (June 10, 2020) I am fine. I'm doing what I consider to be better than most. But like I think everyone is, I'm not completely unaffected by all that is happening. The lockdown has me isolated and in a depressive state and all the other shit going on has me in a bit of a dark place. Nothing too bad, I'm not a risk to myself or others or anything. But I'm not in a good place to be writing the fun and mostly fluffy story I had planned this to be. So until I get into a better state of mind, this story is on Hiatus.

Thank you everyone who has been commenting and kudosing the story. I feel very lucky to have so many nice people reading my story.

Hope you're all doing well and staying safe.

-just_a_rosie


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